Time and Space Discretization in the Digital Twin of the Airport Transport Network

Abstract The paper describes the concept of a Digital Twin (DT) creation, which could be used as part of a centralized ground traffic control system in the airport’s apron area. The work is focused on the automatic control systems expected in the future, which will completely replace the ground traffic controllers that solve the centralized control’s tasks in our days. It is assumed that the developed DT can be used both at the stage of training the control system and at the stage of its use. A special feature of the proposed DT concept is the clearly formulated principles of the observed process’ time discretization and the space in which the movement of ground vehicles and aircraft occurs. The experimental verification of the developed concept was carried out using a special simulation model designed to generate data streams on the airport’s transport network’s traffic participants’ location.