The infrastructure behind the digitalisation of the BHS
How is the data collected?
To understand how digitalisation works, the first place to start is by looking at how the data is gathered in a BHS.
Essentially, the data required for digitalisation can be sourced at any point throughout the BHS – from its alarm logs, sensors, event logs and the various data that the BSH captures.
For example, the sortation system that makes up the physical side of a BHS is equipped with various programmable logic controllers, or PLCs. These PLCs detect all kinds of raw data from the system, such as temperature, vibrations, power consumption, processing speed and more.
Another example is the X-ray machines. Inside these units are processors that have the ability to process all kinds of information specifically related to the screening process. The processing of this data is called edge analytics.
BHS professionals can gain valuable insights from these two streams of data (edge analytics and raw data) about the performance of their systems, but at different levels. The X-ray unit, for example, processes the data locally and is able to tell exactly what is wrong. The data from PLC sensors, on the hand, must be processed before any conclusions can be drawn. As such, this is the role of data analytics.
The role of data analytics
The data is collected on premises at the airport and live streamed to a data warehouse. From here, it is enriched, through the skills and know-how of the BHS provider, and then visualised through a cloud solution. In much the same way a crop is transformed into something edible, the data is presented in a way that makes sense to the user. The same data is shown in different visualisations to cater for the different types of jobs within the airport’s BHS.
Through data analytics, certain patterns and performance behaviour starts to reveal themselves. In this way, data can tell us how every component of the BHS is operating, and how the system is processing the baggage – providing transparency throughout the entire BHS.