A team led by Singapore Technologies Dynamics, in partnership with Israel Aerospace Industries, has won the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore’s second Aviation Challenge with a prototype that has been designed help boost productivity in the cargo handling procedure.
Currently, the process of consolidating cargo into larger pallets and containers for transport in aircraft, and the reverse process of taking apart cargo from these pallets and containers, is b both labour intensive and time consuming. An estimated 40% of manpower deployed for cargo handling is involved in this build-up and breakdown process; moreover, it is also a physically demanding exercise.
The winning entry was one of two prototypes that were able to reduce the workload for workers by about 30% whilst improving their contributions. Both prototypes’ software were able to factor in multiple parameters, such as weight and centre of gravity, at the same time, which improves work productivity. In terms of space utilisation, the prototypes achieved 89% space utilisation on average, which is slightly better than the 85% space utilisation that a cargo planner can achieve today, while maintaining comparable performance standards as the current manual processes. On average, the two prototypes achieved a build-up time of 48 minutes, which is again comparable to the typical build-up time of up to 40 minutes today.
CAAS has said that it will be working with interested companies to further develop these prototypes for implementation at Changi airport.
