CTCI Assists in Building Smart Baggage Sorting System for Taoyuan Airport

Project of smart baggage sorting system and related equipment modification for Taoyuan International Airport

Taoyuan International Airport’s baggage processing greatly increases due to its yearly increase in travelers. Today, the number of outbound flights in the second terminal exceeds the number of baggage unload carousels. As a result, one baggage carousel must simultaneously bear baggage from two or three airplanes. If baggage to different destinations is mixed together in the same carousel, ground crews must check the barcode information of each bag before sending the baggage to the luggage cabinet. As a result, large amounts of baggage accumulate which wait to be transferred, and this delays baggage cabinet transportation and causes mistakes in transporting baggage to wrong carousels. In the event of baggage being wrongly transferred due to stacking or going parallel, ground crews are forced to spend time correcting mistakes, which can result in flight delays or luggage being delayed in arrival. 

This project’s goal is to construct the ”smart two-time baggage sorting system”, computer system, and related equipment modification and software upgrade for the second terminal. This will assist Taoyuan International Airport Corporation, its airlines, and its ground crews in comparing baggage, traveler, and flight information to confirm and process luggage. After the project is completed, baggage sorting and loading will be improved, thereby assuring airport flight safety.

As one of the few professional contractors for airport constructions, CTCI ASI has been devoted to the airport electromechanical and baggage system for many years and is the leading supplier of airport electromechanical integration systems. CTCI is very familiar with international standards, such as those published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization. CTCI has also been entrusted with many Taoyuan International Airport projects. Such projects include a flight noise monitoring system, automatic baggage sorting upgrade system, BHS computer monitoring and upgrade system, baggage reconfirmation system, traveler self-check-in system, advanced visual docking guidance system, control tower automation system, and navigation light facilities construction. Due to the trusted services and project quality provided by CTCI, Taoyuan International Airport has become a smart, world-class airport.  

Reliable Realized

Maintaining normal airport operations and making both new and old systems work simultaneously

As mentioned above, a large number of travelers use the Taoyuan International Airport daily. Due to this fact and the involvement of multiple parties (the airport corporation, airline companies, ground service companies, and maintenance companies), CTCI immediately visited all involved companies to understand their requirements at the project’s beginning. Over the course of the project, CTCI also held meetings to listen to and adopt the ideas of the involved companies for the purpose of solving problems through good communication strategies.

Besides, due to the non-stop operations requirement for the airport, CTCI made construction plans and established an emergency system on the basis of investigating the airport environment before construction. Constructions were then made and adjusted according to flight schedules, traveler and baggage volumes, and carousel time tables. 

In addition, after the project was completed, both the old and new systems were interchangeable and could be run simultaneously. To achieve this, CTCI subcontractors were required to complete software development within their own companies and then install and test the software in the low traffic times during the airport’s operation. This served to reduce construction impact to the lowest possible level. CTCI had promised that the project would be completed on schedule with good quality and zero accidents. The project passed the Ministry of Transportation audits in September and February of 2018 and was awarded the first class distinction. Ninety-six percent of the project’s budget was completed in the budget year of 2017, and a thank you letter was received from Taoyuan International Airport.

Technical Matters

Smart service system with prospective operation analysis

A prospective analysis was done in consideration of future airport expansion. Additionally, in the integration of the new management and information system, CTCI implemented early data collection to provide a basis for the database establishment and smart services. The main systems include the following:

1.BPM/BUM/BMM information exchange platform
The requirement specified in 753 of IATA is that by June 2018, airline companies be able to track all luggage, whether located in the plane, in the arrival area, or in the transit area. In order to meet this requirement, this platform provides airline companies with instant baggage processing and unloading information, effectively tracking each bag. This also meets the information exchange requirements of alliance members (such as star alliance).

BPM/BUM/BMM information exchange platform

2.Display screen for the unloading of inbound luggage 
To inform travelers of the status of inbound luggage, a diagram display is shown on the screens above carousels after the first and the last baggage arrival times are obtained. This relieves traveler stress, promoting traveler satisfaction and airport service quality. 

Display screen of inbound baggage unloading

3.Luggage barcode system and baggage image
Outbound luggage passes through many checkpoints between being received by ground crews and being loaded onto baggage cabinets. This smart baggage sorting system obtains data during baggage transportation, which both establishes baggage tracking and increases baggage management efficiency by predicting luggage flow. Real-time baggage images can also be taken and shown in a screen for ground crews to visually track bags. 

Display screen of baggage information

4.Optimization of outbound baggage carousels
Because the current baggage carousels corresponding to each flight are manually arranged, a lot of time and manpower is demanded in their coordination and verification processes. In order to facilitate the process, this project calculates an optimized “carousel and flight paring” and creates an automatic baggage carousel schedule based on a mega-data analysis of carousel arrangement, distances between check-in counters and carousels (transportation time), parking apron, baggage distribution in carousels, flights, and destinations.  

outbound baggage carousel scheduling system

Smarter Engineering

Colorful baggage sorting management and baggage side-by-side guidance

The project applied the following two innovative technologies:

1.Smart two-time sorting system
Technology is applied in the baggage sorting system that applies the internet of things (IoT) using WIFI, 360-degree full-range scanning machines, speed sensors, central control systems, and different color LED lights corresponding to different flights installed in the outbound baggage carousel. For example, a green light corresponds to flight A and a blue light corresponds to flight B. Each bag corresponds to its own flight color and its light moves together with the bag. When there is an abundance of luggage belonging to different flights on the same carousel, ground crews can quickly pick up the bags they are in charge of according to the baggage light color and position. Therefore, the time previously needed to check luggage barcodes is reduced and baggage loading efficiency is greatly increased. Additionally, luggage that is wrongly loaded to a carousel is labeled with a red light and central control personnel is simultaneously informed. This innovative colorful baggage sorting management system has been the subject of major news reports.

The colorful baggage sorting management system has been reported by major news agencies.

2.Side-by-side baggage guidance equipment
This project adopts smart machine vision technology to avoid any absences of sorting records in the system due to incorrect scanner readings when side-by-side baggage goes into the sorting system. It also prevents baggage being unloaded in wrong carousels. A 3D camera and a side-by-side baggage guidance system are installed in front of each baggage inlet. When luggage goes through the inlet, the camera will automatically take an image of the baggage and transfer it to the industrial PC (called IPC) for verification. If the system detects the possibility of side-by-side baggage, a signal is sent to the side-by-side baggage guidance system via a programmable logic controller (PLC). This system has four different speed conveys. When side-by-side baggage goes through the conveys, the conveys can separate side-by-side baggage according to bag position. As such, incorrect baggage barcode reading is avoided, thereby evading problems associated with incorrect and lost luggage.

The ability to flawlessly send baggage to travelers is always a key service for an airport. Additionally, airport operations must be nonstop, and interruptions are not ideal. To meet these demands, and with the cooperation of CTCI ASI and a third party supervision company, we have communicated with the airport, ground service, and maintenance companies frequently to reach a consensus and successfully complete the project. 

CTCI possesses professional technologies, competitive innovation, seamless construction management, and quality documentation processes, thus providing safe, reliable, and qualified project services. We hope to cooperate with CTCI to drive the Taoyuan International Airport to a new level of quality. 

--Chih Hao Lin, Maintenance Department Supervision, Taoyuan International Airport Co. Ltd