This is TaxiBot. TaxiBot is big and strong and is capable of hauling the mighty Boeing 747 and the mightier Airbus A380 around airports, almost autonomously:
If you think about it, an airport is more or less the best possible place outside of a laboratory for an autonomous robotic vehicle to operate. It’s tightly controlled, without random people wandering around all over the place or suicidal bicyclists. It’s entirely flat. There are extremely well-defined areas in which vehicles can operate. Everything runs on a tight schedule (ideally). And as far as hauling airplanes around, there are huge freakin’ yellow lines painted on the ground that a robot can follow anywhere it needs to go.
It’s a little disappointing, then, that TaxiBot doesn’t actually incorporate much in the way of autonomy. It’s basically just a big remote control car that pilots can steer directly from the cockpit, and that’s driven around by a human when it’s not hauling aircraft. The point? The aircraft don’t have to use their engines while taxiing, reducing wear and saving fuel. So that’s good and all, I just kinda wish TaxiBot was, you know, a little less taxi and more a little bot. It’s something they’ve got in the works, though: the company says that the control architecture of the vehicle is already in place to support autonomous tug operation so that in the near future no tug driver would be needed for taxiing. Sweet, bring it on!
[ Ricardo TaxiBot ]
