Functional Analysis of the Implementation of an iBeacon System in an Air Operator

December 6, 2022

Airline companies are making great efforts to find ways to optimize various processes. Such as in maintenance to ensure high safety standards and directly to customer service. Economic pressure is increasingly high, and it is a business model with a low payback rate. The goal of this thesis is to leverage the use of existing resources - iPads - to simplify processes currently inefficient. The adopted technology starts from the assumption that it will be the iBeacon since it takes advantage of the technology owned by Apple for the transmission of signals. It was integrated into the iOS and it enables an iPad or iPhone to perform two functions - transmitter and receiver. Furthermore, a review of various real-time location system technologies is conducted, and their applicability in the context of an airline operator is evaluated. In this thesis, three different case studies on processes where technology can be advantageous are addressed: crew check-in at the presentation terminal; pre-flight procedures inside the aircraft; tool inventory management in maintenance. A proximity-based solution was proposed for each case, using different technologies. The most popular solution has been the adoption of Quuppa technology. It is Bluetooth based, with its protocol allowing more precise positioning (first and last case). For the second case, simple RFID technology is proposed. Lastly, financial and functional analysis of each solution was undertaken, by calculating the benefits of their implementations.

Authors in the community:

• 

  A

  Ana Beatriz Esteves Macedo

  ist189642

Supervisors of this institution:

• 

  S

  Sérgio David Parreirinha Carvalho

  ist141623

mechanical-engineering - Mechanical engineering

eng - English

Instituto Superior Técnico