The ACAMS Airfield Lighting Control and Monitoring System (ALCMS) allows the user to effectively control the various airfield lighting systems, including runway, approach, taxiway, stop bars, apron, and more.
The ACAMS ALCMS (Airfield Lighting Control and Monitoring System) solution is developed in collaboration with end users to meet the challenges within ATM and Airfield Ground Lighting (AGL) systems today.
Airport control tower operators need to devote their full attention to safely operating the traffic. In a hectic environment there is no room for errors or time loss due to unnecessary complexity. At the same time, there is often a need to improve operational efficiency and meet the appointed budget. This provides the need to have perfectly adapted system solutions, while balancing the need for cost efficiency.
It would seem like a difficult task to create a solution that is both easily operated and perfectly adapted to any airport and, at the same time, cost-efficient.
This is, however, precisely what the ACAMS i6 ALCMS provides by having a:
The ACAMS ALCMS modules provide user-friendly HMI’s for information display and interacting with the various AGL systems integrated.
The AGL systems on an airport normally consist of several different equipment manufacturers and suppliers, which may have been implemented over several years as the needs and requirements of the airport have changed. Because of this, the age of the equipment and the type of interfaces also vary.
In any project to implement a homogenous control and monitoring system like the ACAMS ALCMS solution, we always strive to achieve a proper system design process in close cooperation with our customers to achieve the best, safest, and most cost-effective solution. This process includes a site survey, preliminary and critical design reviews, and sometimes even HMI workshops to be able to provide a tailored solution that suits the end-users specific needs.
References map for ALCMS project delieveries
The ACAMS ALCMS solution is developed with the purpose of creating a homogeneous and easy-to-use environment for the operators to have all necessary AGL control and monitoring at their fingertips without having to rely on several independent systems.
In order to achieve this homogeneous environment, ACAMS has developed an ALCMS solution that consists of a wide range of widgets, processor components, and a standard set of connector modules that are configured to suit each individual airport.
The widgets are a set of HMI control and monitoring applications that are easily customized to the airport’s needs in the ATM operator positions.
The processor components are designed so that they can be configured to do the necessary processing of input/output information between the operator positions HMI and the AGL interfaces (connector modules).
The connector modules’ purpose is to interface the existing AGL system using a set of industry-standard communication protocols.
These applications are developed to have a high level of flexibility to be easily adapted and tailored to individual airport tower needs without compromising the safety and reliability of the solution. The ACAMS ALCMS solution may be designed to be fully redundant by using dual servers that run in a hot/standby architecture.
For larger airports with more advanced AGL systems (for instance, airports with 2 or more runways), a distributed PLC solution may be preferred. When such an architecture is chosen, all logical processing of the interface data done by the ALCMS Server is moved to the Programmable Logic Controllers. This allows for a more flexible solution where maintenance work can be carried out more easily during operation.
The number of customized clients (operator working positions) is virtually unlimited.
