Evaluation of Technology-Supported Distance Measuring to Ensure Safe Aircraft Boarding during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the rise of COVID-19, the sustainability of air transport is a major challenge, as there is limited space in aircraft cabins, resulting in a higher risk of virus transmission. In order to detect possible chains of infection, technology-supported apps are used for social distancing. These COVID-19 applications are based on the display of the received signal strength for distance estimation, which is strongly influenced by the spreading environment due to the signal multipath reception. Therefore, we evaluate the applicability of technology-based social distancing methods in an aircraft cabin environment using a radio propagation simulation based on a three-dimensional aircraft model. We demonstrate the susceptibility to errors of the conventional COVID-19 distance estimation, which can lead to large errors in the determination of distances and to the impracticability of traditional tracing approaches during passenger boarding/deboarding. In the context of the future connected cabin, a robust distance measurement must be implemented to ensure safe travel. Finally, our results can be transferred to similar fields of application, e.g., trains or public transport.

Multipath-assisted Radio Sensing and Occupancy Detection for Smart In-house Parking in ITS

“…In the future, a transfer of the approach to other physical layers, with advantageous properties, such as 5G/6G or Li-Fi, will be examined. In addition, validation could be extended to other environments and applications in ITS like the connected aircraft cabin [29], where passive occupancy detection can be beneficial. Figure 11 proposes a future cabin localization system based on the same multipath-assisted detection of people while boarding.…”

COVID-19 pandemic and air transportation: Successfully navigating the paper hurricane

“…75% when increasing the physical distance of passengers. Schwarzbach et al (2020) Radio propagation simulation is used to assess the distance measuring for safer boarding in a three-dimensional aircraft model. …”

Wireless Technologies for Social Distancing in the Time of COVID-19: Literature Review, Open Issues, and Limitations

“…Research [ 31 ] focused on the assessment of technology-assisted distance estimation for safe aircraft boarding. It proved the normal COVID-19 distance estimation’s vulnerability to faults, which could also lead to huge inaccuracies in distance calculation and the impracticability of typical tracking methodologies during passenger boarding/deboarding.…”

“…The research [ 31 ] conducted an assessment of technology-supported distance gauging approaches in an aircraft cabin setting by means of a radio propagation simulation constructed on a three-dimensional aircraft model. It has revealed the conventional COVID-19 distance estimation’s sensitivity to mistakes, which can lead to massive mistakes in distance calculation and the difficulty of typical tracing methodologies during passenger boarding/deboarding.…”

“…Various kinds of implementation were used in the literature using different tools and settings. On one hand some studies have made their implementation using real experiments such as [ 27 , 30 , 35 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 41 ], while some studies have conducted a simulation-based implementations, such as [ 29 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ]. On the other hand, few studies made both implementation, simulation based and real experiments, such as [ 28 , 37 ], while the study [ 38 ] did not present implementation method.…”