The multi-year partnership with CAG provides an opportunity for the further development of Aurrigo's autonomous ground-handling solutions at Changi Airport and demonstrations to showcase the technology to other airports and stakeholders.
"We have worked closely with the team at Changi for several years and this partnership cements our collaboration to bring the best automated solutions to airlines and airports, enabling them to improve efficiency, safety and sustainability," said David Keene, CEO of Aurrigo, a Coventry-based transport technology company.
The partnership follows on from the agreement with CAG announced on 28 October 2022, for the next phase of development of Aurrigo's Auto-Dolly.
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The development and testing of Aurrigo's autonomous vehicles is partially funded by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) through its Aviation Development Fund (ADF).
"Similar to major airports throughout the world, recruiting enough ground handling personnel and drivers to support our growth is a challenge,” said Poh Li San, SVP of Terminal 5 Planning, CAG. “We have been encouraged by Aurrigo's innovative autonomous technologies to help address these issues, and we're excited to partner Aurrigo in joint development and testing of these solutions."
Aurrigo unveiled Auto-Dolly in February 2021 following trials that demonstrated how the vehicle could reduce the number of traditional tugs and trailers used to transport cargo and luggage by two thirds, as well as cut carbon emissions.
In use, an Auto-Dolly can navigate autonomously between jobs, collecting and dropping off items using a powered roller deck. It also has the ability to ‘crab’ sideways when docking and parallel parking. All-weather running is achieved by weather-hardened sensors and software processes that allow the Auto-Dolly to operate in snow, heavy rain, direct sunlight and fog.
Auto-Sim is an airport simulator software tool that allows customers to map current operations and migrate from manual methods through to fully autonomous operations.
With this latest announcement, Changi Airport will be the first airport in the world to operate autonomous electric luggage trucks.
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