Contribution to the evaluation and optimization of passengers' screening at airports

Security threats have emerged in the past decades as a more and more critical issue for Air Transportation which has been one of the main ressource for globalization of economy. Reinforced control measures based on pluridisciplinary research and new technologies have been implemented at airports as a reaction to different terrorist attacks. From the scientific perspective, the efficient screening of passengers at airports remain a challenge and the main objective of this thesis is to open new lines of research in this field by developing advanced approaches using the resources of Computer Science. First this thesis introduces the main concepts and definitions of airport security and gives an overview of the passenger terminal control systems and more specifically the screening inspection positions are identified and described. A logical model of the departure control system for passengers at an airport is proposed. This model is transcribed into a graphical view (Controlled Satisfiability Graph-CSG) which allows to test the screening system with different attack scenarios. Then a probabilistic approach for the evaluation of the control system of passenger flows at departure is developped leading to the introduction of Bayesian Colored Petri nets (BCPN). Finally an optimization approach is adopted to organize the flow of passengers at departure as best as possible given the probabilistic performance of the elements composing the control system. After the establishment of a global evaluation model based on an undifferentiated serial processing of passengers, is analyzed a two-stage control structure which highlights the interest of pre-filtering and organizing the passengers into separate groups. The conclusion of this study points out for the continuation of this theme

Seventh Workshop and Tutorial on Practical Use of Coloured Petri Nets and the CPN Tools, Aarhus, Denmark, October 24-26, 2006

This booklet contains the proceedings of the Seventh Workshop on Practical Use of Coloured Petri Nets and the CPN Tools, October 24-26, 2006. The workshop is organised by the CPN group at the Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, Denmark. The papers are also available in electronic form via the web pages: http://www.daimi.au.dk/CPnets/workshop0

Safety‐oriented discrete event model for airport A‐SMGCS reliability assessment

A detailed analysis of State of the Art Technologies and Procedures into Airport Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems has been provided in this thesis, together with the review ofStatistical Monte Carlo Analysis, Reliability Assessment and Petri Nets theories. This practical and theoretical background has lead the author to the conclusion that there is a lack of linkage in between these fields. At the same of time the rapid increasing of Air Traffic all over the world, has brought in evidence the urgent need of practical instruments able to identify and quantify the risks connected with Aircraft operations on the ground, since the Airport has shown to be the actual ‘bottle neck’ of the entire Air Transport System. Therefore, the only winning approach to such a critical matter has to be multi-disciplinary, sewing together apparently different subjects, coming from the most disparate areas of interest and trying to fulfil the gap. The result of this thesis work has come to a start towards the end, when a Timed Coloured Petri Net (TCPN) model of a ‘sample’ Airport A-SMGCS has been developed, that is capable of taking into account different orders of questions arisen during these recent years and tries to give them some good answers. The A-SMGCS Airport model is, in the end, a parametric tool relying on Discrete Event System theory, able to perform a Reliability Analysis of the system itself, that: • uses a Monte Carlo Analysis applied to a Timed Coloured Petri Net, whose purpose is to evaluate the Safety Level of Surface Movements along an Airport • lets the user to analyse the impact of Procedures and Reliability Indexes of Systems such as Surface Movement Radars, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, Airport Lighting Systems, Microwave Sensors, and so on… onto the Safety Level of Airport Aircraft Transport System • not only is a valid instrument in the Design Phase, but it is useful also into the Certifying Activities an in monitoring the Safety Level of the above mentioned System with respect to changes to Technologies and different Procedures.This TCPN model has been verified against qualitative engineering expectations by using simulation experiments and occupancy time schedules generated a priori. Simulation times are good, and since the model has been written into Simulink/Stateflow programming language, it can be compiled to run real-time in C language (Real-time workshop and Stateflow Coder), thus relying on portable code, able to run virtually on any platform, giving even better performances in terms of execution time. One of the most interesting applications of this work is the estimate, for an Airport, of the kind of A-SMGCS level of implementation needed (Technical/Economical convenience evaluation). As a matter of fact, starting from the Traffic Volume and choosing the kind of Ground Equipment to be installed, one can make predictions about the Safety Level of the System: if the value is compliant with the TLS required by ICAO, the A-SMGCS level of Implementation is sufficiently adequate. Nevertheless, even if the Level of Safety has been satisfied, some delays due to reduced or simplified performances (even if Safety is compliant) of some of the equipment (e.g. with reference to False Alarm Rates) can lead to previously unexpected economical consequences, thus requiring more accurate systems to be installed, in order to meet also Airport economical constraints. Work in progress includes the analysis of the effect of weather conditions and re-sequencing of a given schedule. The effect of re-sequencing a given schedule is not yet enough realistic since the model does not apply inter arrival and departure separations. However, the model might show some effect on different sequences based on runway occupancy times. A further developed model containing wake turbulence separation conditions would be more sensitive for this case. Hence, further work will be directed towards: • The development of On-Line Re-Scheduling based on the available actual runway/taxiway configuration and weather conditions. • The Engineering Safety Assessment of some small Italian Airport A-SMGCSs (Model validation with real data). • The application of Stochastic Differential Equations systems in order to evaluate the collision risk on the ground inside the Place alone on the Petri Net, in the event of a Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA), by adopting Reich Collision Risk Model. • Optimal Air Traffic Control Algorithms Synthesis (Adaptive look-ahead Optimization), by Dynamically Timed Coloured Petri Nets, together with the implementation of Error-Recovery Strategies and Diagnosis Functions

Analyzing and improving air cargo terminal operations

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

Digital Twin of the Air Cargo Supply Chain

In this paper we develop a digital twin based on the new One Record linked data standard. This enables short-term workload prediction for the various partners in the air cargo supply chain without the need for multiple data exchange interfaces. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first research on the potential benefits of One Record. The concept of the digital twin allows for an overarching optimization of operations in the air cargo supply chain without the necessity of full transparency between all the partners

Time-dependent performance approximation of truck handling operations at an air cargo terminal

This paper provides an analytical solution for the time-dependent performance evaluation of truck handling operations at an air cargo terminal. The demand for loading and unloading operations is highly time-dependent and stochastic for two classes of trucks. Two heterogeneous handling facilities with multiple servers are available to handle trucks assuming exponentially distributed processing times. Trucks are routed to a handling facility depending on the current state of the system upon arrival. To approximate the time-dependent behavior of such heterogeneous queueing systems, we develop a stationary backlog-carryover (SBC) approach. A numerical study compares this approach with simulations and demonstrates its applicability to real-world input data

Technical, economic and energetic competitiveness of rail-road combined transport: evaluation of the effects of possible ITS applications on intermodal terminal.

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Reorganization of the Warehouse Activities Processes with the Framing of their Problems and Solutions

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine and identify goods processing operations in a warehouse and propose a reorganization of tasks to minimize processing time.   Theoretical framework: Current literature highlights the need to reorganize and adapt the operations chain (LOMBA Cédric, 2018). Some areas still need to be studied in depth to improve the supply chain. The literature on warehouse management has not sufficiently studied partial time management or closed-loop time management in the supply chain (CLSC) from goods-in to goods-out. The potential links between the risks of lost time and the management of the quality of the goods handling service have not been studied in depth.   Design/Methodology/Approach: The in-depth analysis of recent international studies published on warehouse management and the supply chain enables us to identify the studies that have the greatest impact on research.   Findings:  The result of this work is the development of a double typology, one linked to the chain of operations and the other to the constraints linked to the CLSC in a warehouse. Tools will be applied to diagnose the constraints and factors adversely goods handling operations.   Research, Practical & Social implications: To help logisticians and researchers, we have proposed an operational reformulation of a warehouse, enriched with a logical framework linking the problems and their potential solutions.   Originality/Value: The article proposes an original vision to improve the spatio-temporal organization of warehouses, by synthesizing its different entities, operations, and processes while presenting all the existing problems and identifying their possible solutions

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems 2013

Challenges arising from an increasing traffic demand, limited resource availability and growing quality expectations of the customers can only be met successfully, if each transport mode is regarded as an intelligent transportation system itself, but also as part of one intelligent transportation system with “intelligent” intramodal and intermodal interfaces. This topic is well reflected in the Third International Conference on “Models and Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems” which took place in Dresden 2013 (previous editions: Rome 2009, Leuven 2011). With its variety of traffic management problems that can be solved using similar methods and technologies, but with application specific models, objective functions and constraints the conference stands for an intensive exchange between theory and practice and the presentation of case studies for all transport modes and gives a discussion forum for control engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and other researchers and practitioners. The present book comprises fifty short papers accepted for presentation at the Third Edition of the conference. All submissions have undergone intensive reviews by the organisers of the special sessions, the members of the scientific and technical advisory committees and further external experts in the field. Like the conference itself the proceedings are structured in twelve streams: the more model-oriented streams of Road-Bound Public Transport Management, Modelling and Control of Urban Traffic Flow, Railway Traffic Management in four different sessions, Air Traffic Management, Water Traffic and Traffic and Transit Assignment, as well as the technology-oriented streams of Floating Car Data, Localisation Technologies for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Image Processing in Transportation. With this broad range of topics this book will be of interest to a number of groups: ITS experts in research and industry, students of transport and control engineering, operations research and computer science. The case studies will also be of interest for transport operators and members of traffic administration

BioSilicoSystems - A Multipronged Approach Towards Analysis and Representation of Biological Data (PhD Thesis)

The rising field of integrative bioinformatics provides the vital methods to integrate, manage and also to analyze the diverse data and allows gaining new and deeper insights and a clear understanding of the intricate biological systems. The difficulty is not only to facilitate the study of heterogeneous data within the biological context, but it also more fundamental, how to represent and make the available knowledge accessible. Moreover, adding valuable information and functions that persuade the user to discover the interesting relations hidden within the data is, in itself, a great challenge. Also, the cumulative information can provide greater biological insight than is possible with individual information sources. Furthermore, the rapidly growing number of databases and data types poses the challenge of integrating the heterogeneous data types, especially in biology. This rapid increase in the volume and number of data resources drive for providing polymorphic views of the same data and often overlap in multiple resources. 

In this thesis a multi-pronged approach is proposed that deals with various methods for the analysis and representation of the diverse biological data which are present in different data sources. This is an effort to explain and emphasize on different concepts which are developed for the analysis of molecular data and also to explain its biological significance. The hypotheses proposed are in context with various other results and findings published in the past. The approach demonstrated also explains different ways to integrate the molecular data from various sources along with the need for a comprehensive understanding and clear projection of the concept or the algorithm and its results, but with simple means and methods. The multifarious approach proposed in this work comprises of different tools or methods spanning significant areas of bioinformatics research such as data integration, data visualization, biological network construction / reconstruction and alignment of biological pathways. Each tool deals with a unique approach to utilize the molecular data for different areas of biological research and is built based on the kernel of the thesis. Furthermore these methods are combined with graphical representation that make things simple and comprehensible and also helps to understand with ease the underlying biological complexity. Moreover the human eye is often used to and it is more comfortable with the visual representation of the facts