A Testbed for Performance Analysis of Algorithms for Engineless Taxiing with Autonomous Tow Trucks

One of the solutions proposed by the aerospace industry to reduce fuel consumption, air pollution and noise at airports consists of using electric tow trucks to tow aircraft from the gate to the runway (or vice-versa). However, the introduction of tow trucks results in an increase in surface traffic, potentially increasing the workload of Air Traffic Controllers (ATC). Many solutions have been proposed in the literature in an attempt to mitigate this problem through the introduction of automated planning and execution. The majority of these solutions have been tested only under strict scenario conditions using a limited number of performance metrics. This paper proposes a simulation testbed that characterizes and compares the performance of such algorithms. By adopting common performance metrics, the testbed allows an objective comparison through the extraction of statistical data using a significant number of scenarios.