Hyderabad city had always been on excellent terms with the best technological innovations. The city has welcomed AI in all forms, with institutes like IIIT Hyderabad and various other organizations setting up their research and technology development centers in emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, Machine Learning, Cyber Security, and Blockchain. 

IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao has shown great interest in various AI-related endeavors and also declared the year 2020 as the year of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote the use of the technology in various sectors, including agriculture, urban transportation, and healthcare.

The city recently got another feather in its cap, with Hyderabad International Airport becoming India's first airport to deploy IoT to track and maintain the availability of baggage trolleys for passengers in real-time across the airport. This has come in line with the flagship Digital India Programme of the Government of India.

SGK Kishore, ED-South and Chief Innovation Officer, GMR Airports said, "Hyderabad International Airport has been the flag bearer of innovation and technology adoption in many ways and has pioneered many innovative digital solutions to scale up our service and operational excellence."

The whole fleet of 3,000 baggage trolleys is now equipped with IoT technology. The airport has deployed LoRa (Long Range) IoT platform for the Airport Baggage Trolley Project. This technology aims to substantially reduce the waiting time of passengers for baggage trolleys along with ensuring that the supply is always meeting the demand. This will be based on real-time data monitoring.

So, let's first understand how the system of smart trolleys functions.

  What is a smart trolley solution?

  The smart trolley system has the capability to plan baggage trolleys according to the predictive analysis based on the estimated departure and arrival passenger inflows. This will streamline the airport operations as well as passenger experience. The predictive analysis will help in proactive planning with higher transparency. This system will also help in easy data access with its cross-platform compatibility.

The main features of the smart trolley system are:

• Live-tracking of trolleys- Smart trolley solution offers real-time Live tracking of trolleys through a mobile application, which will make the work easier in a timely manner.
• Live count of trolleys- With high demand and inflows at busy airports, it was truly challenging to manage and monitor trolleys manually. With the Smart trolley solution, it gets easier to keep a count of trolleys and also helps to avoid trolley thefts. With an inbuilt alert mechanism, if any trolley enters a "no airport zone", an alert message will be generated along with the trolley's live location.
• Live movement of trolleys- Trolley management had been a manual task so far, with trolley retrieval workers having to replenish the trolleys at the right location swiftly to decrease the lag or wait time. The live movement of the trolley through a mobile application will help workers easily identify the moving or idle status of the trolley.
• Trolley usage analytics- Monitoring peak demand times through analytics will improve supply and planning, improving the passenger experience.
• Real-time location tracking- With the flexibility of a mobile application for real-time trolley monitoring, the waiting time will reduce significantly.

Artificial intelligence is deep embedded in the idea of smart cities. Overtime, AI-powered systems will change the way we fly today and make travel more convenient and safe.

Image by MichaelGaida from Pixabay