Episode 3 of Design This Day

Why DFW airport is building a digital twin and betting big on autonomy.

Paul Puopolo joins joins Teague Futurist Devin Liddell to talk about how Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is planning for the future. Paul Puopolo is the executive vice president of innovation at DFW, a former Navy helicopter pilot, and has nearly 20 years of experience spearheading innovation at large organizations. 

Scene: ... it's nighttime. You've just disembarked from a large passenger jet. It's the first leg of your international journey, and it's time to head across the airport for your connecting flight. You're feeling a bit anxious, this next flight you definitely can't miss. But hold on...

Automated: Wait time is four minutes.

Your phone says the wait at the security checkpoint is shorter than usual right now. You have time to spare. You pause to look out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the airfield. It seems dark and quiet on the tarmac, but you look closer, and there's actually a flurry of activity. An autonomous tug vehicle is approaching the airplane you were just on. It will pull the massive jet to a different gate, where a flight crew is waiting to board. You look farther out, and a dozen moving vehicles catch your eye. The shapes are traveling across the fields next to the runway. They are moving perfectly in sync, but where a driver would usually sit, there are only solar panels. These are autonomous lawnmowers, and they are cutting the grass to regulation height at one of the world's busiest airports. This is the future of airports. Welcome to Design This Day, a podcast about the future, the futures we want, and the people working right now to make those futures real. 
 

Devin Liddell: I spend a lot of my time thinking about the gap between present challenges and future solutions. I wanted to speak with Paul because we are approaching an era of disruptive technologies like autonomous vehicles, and all new kinds of aircraft. So it's no surprise that the teams running some of the world's biggest airports are already designing systems to embrace this new future. We're going to get into how Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, or DFW for short, is planning for the future, and more. But first, let's ground this conversation with the basics, plus a little talk about sensors.

Paul Puopolo: In the simplest terms, an airport is to provide a safe and secure environment to facilitate the movement of cargo and people throughout the world. At DFW, our mission is a little bit broader than that, and we want to create an exceptional customer experience every day for our folks, and we do that through the infrastructure that we have.

Devin Liddell: DFW is, for sure, one of the biggest airports in the world. It's the third busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements, and it's the second busiest by passenger traffic. It seems like you're always working to improve the passenger experience. What are some common pain points for passengers that DFW has solved, or is working on solving in the next few years?

Paul Puopolo: Yeah, so we're obviously very focused on the passenger. And we did an ethnographic research a few years ago, and no surprise, the top pain points are time and control. And so when you look at that, that means passengers don't have control over the process, so how do we give them control, and how do we give them more time so that they can feel less stress when they're in our airports? And so we worked really hard to provide the right information at the right time to the travelers to keep that experience more stress-free.

We worked really hard to provide the right information at the right time to the travelers to keep that experience more stress-free.

And we do that obviously through a lot of different solutions. For example, our customer experience team, they installed sensors at all our checkpoints, so that we can track real-time, the wait time for specific security checkpoints. And what we do is, we are able to estimate how long you are going to be in the checkpoint, and then we put that on our mobile app so that before you get to the airport, you can actually look at your gate, and look at the checkpoint, and find out how much time is it going to take you to get through that checkpoint, so you can adjust your travel time.

And then we also create a predictive model around that, so that if you say that my flight's leaving at 4:00 and I want to get to the airport at 2:00, you can see what the predicted wait time is going to be now that we have all the data, and then you can adjust your arrival time based on what you think the predicted wait time is going to be. For us, that's providing the right information to make it a little bit more stress-free for you. That puts control back into the traveler's hands. So that's just one way we're doing that.

Devin Liddell: These sensors may be small, but they are an integral part of the airport's strategy to improve the passenger experience. They collect data to feed predictive models, and in what I think is a brilliant strategy, the airport analyzes the data to give passengers some control over their own experience. The network of sensors belongs to a type of technology dubbed the internet of things, or IoT. It's been around for more than a decade, but this kind of innovative use case is just the starting point for future-forward airports.

Paul Puopolo: And then we're expanding those sensors to the curb, so that we can start to monitor how long will it take you to park your car, and then move from the parking garage, let's say, to the checkpoint. So we're starting to string together more and more information, so that the passengers' a little bit more stress-free, and can plan their travel accordingly.

I think sensors and IoT is going to be the future of the airport. It's the only way we can be more proactive. Now, what sensors and where those sensors are, I think those are all debatable based on the use cases. We have sensors today that you can put in, and you can cover a very specific area of the terminal, so you can track passenger flow. We use different sensors such as LiDAR on the curb if we're trying to track cars, and traffic, and length of time a car might be sitting on the curbs. Those sensors would be very different than the sensors that we put on, for example, on our concessionaires. So we put sensors on the doorways and the gates of the concessionaires so we know when they're open and closed, and we take that data, and we feed that into the mobile app, so you know by the minute if this particular location is open or closed.

I think sensors and IoT is going to be the future of the airport. It's the only way we can be more proactive.

So we have different sensors everywhere. Even think about conveyors, so think about all those escalators that you see that have those little yellow barriers because they're broken, we have a lot of escalators at DFW Airport, but now we have sensors on those escalators so that we can predict their usage. So not only do we know when they break, we can also get ahead of the predictive maintenance on those conveyors, so that we can actually fix them before they break, so that we have less downtime when there are a lot of passengers there. So we can fix them, let's say, in the middle of the night, knowing that they're going to meet their maintenance requirements. So sensors and IoT allows us to be a much more proactive organization.

Devin Liddell: What about autonomy at the airport? Are you doing things in that sector?

Paul Puopolo: Yeah. A couple of years ago, we started our interest in autonomy. And when we say autonomy, we think about autonomous mobility, and we think about autonomous mobility not only for passengers, but for cargo and things, how do we autonomously move the passenger boarding bridge? As well as autonomous... We call it GSE equipment, ramp equipment, all those things.

We also did an autonomous cargo test. We put a cargo tug on the ramp, and we worked with a couple of partners and an airline partner to move cargo from the aircraft into a warehouse. And we tested all that, and we worked with the FAA on what were the requirements, and what were the constraints that we had to follow to make sure that that works. And we've had different partners, autonomous vehicle partners who are running the shuttles, they've come out and mapped our airport for sedans and more autonomous taxis. So we're a big believer in autonomy. We believe the future is going to be either autonomous, and connected, and shared for personal travel, and we need as an airport to be ready to support those vehicles, not to mention the network that it needs.

Devin Liddell: Paul is referring to the airport's private 5G network. DFW is one of several airports in the world that have such a network to accommodate any technology that demands high-speed and secure connectivity. Think facial recognition, real-time data analytics, or even augmented reality. This network could also one day serve as a whole fleet of autonomous vehicles that address both passenger, and operational needs at the airport.

Paul Puopolo: It has to be fast, has low latency, and we have to be able to scale it, and so creating that 5G private network was critical for the airport. And now we can put different tenants and different people on that network, and take them off the public network. So then even the customers benefit, because now there's less traffic on the public 5G wifi network, we now have a private network and then a public network. If you think about the size of our ramp, and the size of our airport, when you put a vehicle out onto the runway or out... Let's say, going across, let's say the runway at some point, it's running right now on GPS data, it has to connect to the cellular network. But now, we can keep them on a 5G private network, which is much more effective for us. So all those support vehicles that need to have communication, works much better with a 5G private network.

Devin Liddell: Much of the innovation at airports happens behind the scenes. A lot of upgrades and operational evolutions are invisible, like the private 5G network, but they are no less important. Some of the autonomous vehicles at the airport will be tasked with safety-related, detail-oriented jobs that most passengers will never see.

Paul Puopolo: So we did test autonomous lawnmowers here at the airport, and we did it on a very large field that was right outside of airport headquarters. We know that there's a lot of conversation that has to happen with the FAA before you put a vehicle on the runway, but our runways are two and a half miles long. So if you think about the size of our runways, and we have seven of them, five of them are quite large, those are the ones that are two and a half miles long.

But there's a lot of grass that goes along the side of these runways, and you have to keep it at a certain height according to the FAA regulations, I think it's less than eight inches. And so cutting the grass, while it doesn't seem like a big deal to people, it's a big deal when you have that much grass, and you have to cut it a lot, and you don't want to disrupt airfield operations, and you want to be able to do it at night, let's say, and you want to be able to do it safely.

So finding different technology solutions that can help us do that, or at least help us augment some of it, is a big win for us. So we tested autonomous lawnmowers here outside of headquarters on a big large field, and we learned a ton about it. About, again, how long can they run? Can they navigate it? Can they map the field? How long does it take to charge them? Can they handle the scope or the size of our airport? So that was a fun one. That group is working with the FAA right now to come up with some, I would say, policy on how an autonomous lawnmower would then be able to operate on the air side in the runway environment. So they're working right now with the FAA to get the regulations.

And a lot of that has to do with the control system, because think about how many lawnmowers you'll have to need to run at the same time. So think about 20 lawnmowers kind of doing their own thing out there along the runways, you need to have a control system that's going to manage all that to make sure everybody's comfortable, that those lawnmowers don't go where they're not supposed to go. But those are the things that are happening. That's right around the corner. We're talking 2025 type solution.

Devin Liddell: Pushing out a bit further, I am particularly interested in a new type of aircraft that's getting a lot of attention, eVTOLs. eVTOL is a technical term for what is essentially a flying car. eVTOL is an acronym for electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, and this technology is in development right now. They're basically small battery-powered aircraft that don't need a runway because they're capable of vertical takeoff and landing. These vehicles have a lot of potential to transform transportation as we know it. So eVTOLs have the potential it seems to subvert a lot of the expected ways that aviation works. I'm curious, how is DFW anticipating them? And how is it going to fold them into operations?

eVTOLs definitely created a lot of interest in the market. Personally, I'm optimistic about eVTOLs. Now, that being said, there's a lot that has to happen to make eVTOLs work.

Paul Puopolo: Yeah, so eVTOLs definitely created a lot of interest in the market. Personally, I'm optimistic about eVTOLs. Now, that being said, there's a lot that has to happen to make eVTOLs work. Obviously the FAA has to approve and certify them, there's a lot of regulations that have to kind of get worked through. But to your point, if we're talking about five years down the road, if we're talking about 2029 and 2030, based on the technology, and assuming that they get certified, you're right, these aircraft, or these vehicles will change the way people move regionally in a particular community.
So if you live, let's say, 30 or 40 or 45 minutes away from a major hub like DFW Airport, this is an option for you to get to our airport. Now, the business model has to get worked out, but because it takes 2 to 3 years to put in infrastructure to support these vehicles, we have to start thinking about that now, and that's why our innovation team, that's why we're already thinking about eVTOL at DFW Airport. We're thinking about it for 2028, for 2029. And you can imagine, it's hard to think about, "Is this really going to happen when you're an operational environment like DFW Airport?" But we've invested the time and the effort to say, "What's our short-term plan to support an eVTOL model in the next five years?"

Devin Liddell: Being ready to embrace these kinds of breakthrough innovations like eVTOLs requires careful planning. It's the kind of project that is sometimes known as an H3 innovation. The term comes from a McKinsey framework for corporate innovation called the three horizons of growth. It goes like this, H1 is about the current core business. H2 is about emerging opportunities, and H3 is an innovation that is absolutely transformative.

Paul Puopolo: This is your typical H3 type innovation, the revolutionary type where you're like, "This is out there, but we need to plan for it." Because if it shows up and you're not ready, you're going to miss out on serving the public. So we have to put things in place so that we can serve it. We hope that we will be able to do a test in around 2026 to get a couple of vehicles to fly here, so that we're ready for 2028 and 2029, and then we have a longer term plan. But I think if it passes FAA certification, I think regional air travel could be very different.

Devin Liddell: Innovators like Paul are already setting things up behind the scenes so that when these technologies become publicly available, the airport is ready to incorporate them into everyday operations.
But speaking of everyday operations, the other piece of this balancing act is making sure the airport of today continues running smoothly. This is not a startup company where a founder is starting from scratch. No, Paul's team is essentially running a whole city. DFW has its own ZIP Code. The airport is almost 27 square miles, and has its own police and fire departments.

Paul Puopolo: So a lot of what we do is facility management and asset management, but it's all driven around efficiencies to keep the environment comfortable for the passengers. And when you have 270 to 180,000 people that come through your terminals every day, it's a lot of people that you're trying to keep happy.

Devin Liddell: Is that the figure? What's the figure per day?

Paul Puopolo: Yeah, on average, it's about 270 to 290 in the summer, obviously it's a little bit down in off-peak times, but for the summers, we're between 270 to 290,000 people, because we did service 87 million people last year, total for the year.

Devin Liddell: That's extraordinary. I think that's one of those figures that I think is sobering for members of the flying public, where they don't quite grasp the scale of that. Off the top of my head, that's like two and a half super bowls per day.

Paul Puopolo: No, I was going to say that's like four stadiums coming through your office... Every day.

Devin Liddell: Right.

Paul Puopolo: Yeah.

Devin Liddell: Exactly. Is there a command center somewhere inside DFW where you see all this up on a screen, you can see the concessionaires, can see the escalators, you can see the curb, you can see all these things? How is that visualized?

Paul Puopolo: So at DFW, we have an integrated operation center, and that integrated operation center is kind of the heartbeat of our airport. If you think about what you think an operation center is, with a bunch of video screens on the wall, that is exactly what it is. It's really quite impressive. But they have a lot of applications, and all the different systems that we have, and all the different applications are then presented up on screens, and they can track a lot of different operations and things that are happening across the airport.

Now, to your question though, we have a lot of systems, and we have a lot of data that comes in. And so one of the things that we've invested in, and we started this a couple of years ago, was our need for a digital twin. And a digital twin is that digital representation of the physical aspects of, let's say an entity or an airport. And so we are creating a digital twin of the airport, and this has been a journey of the airports for a couple of years.

We have a lot of data that comes in. And so one of the things that we've invested in was our need for a digital twin.

And the idea is, how do we bring in static data, real-time data, and predictive models into a common interface for all airport employees to be able to access and use? So to your point, it's a one-stop shop. It's the visual of what is going on at the airport. Now, the challenge with the digital twin is that you can't digital twin everything, so you have to start thinking about your use cases, and what you want to twin.

We have five terminals, so we have to be very specific in what we want to twin, because you can't just go back and twin all five terminals. All new construction, you can get those assets digitally, and then add them to the digital twin, so that's a little bit easier as you're going through new construction, but when you have buildings and assets already in place, you have to go think about, "Well, how do I want to digitize those?"
As an example, your HVAC system. We've twinned our HVAC system, so that we know when certain things are broken, we know when, let's say a pipe leaks, or when an air conditioning unit isn't working, or the flow of air isn't working at a certain time.

Why is that a big deal? When you've got five terminals, and there's a leak, or a water leak, being notified of where that water leak is, and finding out how to deploy your maintenance team to that specific location to turn off that specific valve, or to stop that leak, is incredibly important. And the twin allows you to visualize all of that through real-time data, and through historical data. And so that's another part of the process, is, how do you collect the data? Where do you get the data? How do you store it? How do you capture it? And then you have to feed it, and then put the algorithms on the model together, so that the twin can actually use it. Remember, the twin is just the physical representation, you've got to do all that data work and all those algorithms also to make it work, and feed it into the twin.

Devin Liddell: All of this data would make the digital twin an even more powerful tool. It can run simulations of proposed changes, giving Paul's team a leg up on both day-to-day operations, as well as developing new innovations.

Paul Puopolo: So the whole idea of the twin is to give us a real-time view of what's going on to help us be more efficient and effective, and also to run scenarios and simulations in the future. What happens if that breaks? What happens if we turn that off? What will that do? What happens if I block a road? If I block a road for construction, what's that going to do to congestion? So you can run simulation models through that twin, which is incredibly useful for us because of our size.

Devin Liddell: With all of these exciting possibilities, Paul is always making an assessment about what the next step should be. Part of the challenge in any kind of innovation process is knowing when not to pursue something.

Paul Puopolo: I mean, you have to look at technology and say, "Well, part of our job as innovation is do rapid learning. Here's a cool, interesting technology, how do we apply it to the airport? Let's go see if it's worth it. Does it actually change anything? Is it more efficient, more effective? Does it do anything for us?" So yes, there's always that piece of it.

Technology is great, but you've got to look at it and say, "Is this really going to change anything for the experience that my passengers have in my terminals?

There's been a lot of talk about little robots that go around the terminals, with food in it, and passengers can buy their food from these robots. We're looking at that, we don't know if there's actual value there at DFW, because the way our terminals are designed, and because there's so much access to food and beverage already, and it's visible to people that do you really need a robot going from gate to gate that provides, let's say food and beverage? Versus them just being able to walk a few feet to get the food and beverage that they need. So again, technology is great, but you've got to look at it and say, "Is this really going to change anything for the experience that my passengers have in my terminals?" So this is a journey, I can't say that we have all the answers.

Devin Liddell: All right, let's move into a little bit of a speed round. What's your take on the most overhyped technology?

Paul Puopolo: The work that you have to do on the data side to make AI work for your organization is a lot, and I think sometimes people overlook the data, the data cataloging, the cleaning of the data, making sure the AI is pointed at the right data. That's a lot of work for an organization. So that's why I kind of want to stay away from AI, because I think it has a lot of opportunity, but I think there's a lot of work on the organization side to figure out what to do with it. So I think that's a little bit overhyped.

Devin Liddell: And then conversely, what's your take on the most underhyped technology?

Paul Puopolo: I'll go back to what we were talking about earlier on autonomous vehicles and robots. Honestly, I think, yes, work has to be done with autonomy, but I think people underestimate what autonomous bots can do for us. I'm not saying that they're going to fully replace everything, but them augmenting our operation, I just find autonomy incredibly interesting, and I think it's underhyped.

Devin Liddell: What's an innovation in another industry that has inspired you to think differently about your work?

Paul Puopolo: I know people are going to say, "Well, Paul, Tesla." But I look at Tesla only because... Not only because, but if you look at the history of Tesla, taking out all the other stuff, but the fact that they persevered for so long. If you remember in the very beginning when Tesla, nobody believed that they could do an electric car, and now they actually are building an ecosystem that supports that vehicle, whether it's the charging, all the chargers and the batteries, and things like that, it forces us as... I think about the system, it forces me to think about the system. Yes, you can put in a technology, but what's the system that I need to have to support it? So I'm always inspired by companies who build an ecosystem around their product, which Tesla has done. I think that applies to the airport as well. So that's the best answer I can give you on that.

Devin Liddell: What book or show has influenced how you think about your role as an innovator?

Paul Puopolo: When I tend to read, I try to keep it light. We have a veterans group and we pick books every year that we're going to read. And we read the Noticer, it's The Noticer by Andy Andrews. He wrote The Traveler's Gift. It's a great book, it's on perspective, and how do you make sure that you look at the small things, and how the small things can actually affect the bigger things, and how do you look at things in your life, and make sure you keep that perspective. Particularly in innovation, it's always good to have perspective because things are challenging, but I recommend that. I think it's a light read.

Devin Liddell: Super fascinating. I love it. Well, thank you so much, Paul, for being with us here today. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to be with us.

Paul Puopolo: Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity.

Devin Liddell: That's it for today. Thank you for listening to Design This Day, a podcast by Teague. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app, so you don't miss the next episode. We have some really exciting guests coming up. I'm looking forward to sharing more with you next time. And if you have a complex problem that needs solving, we'd love to hear from you. Visit us at teague.com or send us an email at hello@teague.com.