Ground_Support_October_2020 - 29

TECHNOLOGY

the MIT drives the bag into the search
room for the TSA," says Alderman.
Originally, Chin adds, the MITs
were not part of the plan.
"It was later incorporated to the
scope of work, the
installation
of the
mobile inspection
system, reconfiguration of
the offices and restrooms at
the second level and
deferred work, such
as: inbound conveyor lines and
associated crossovers and equipment, electric detection
system machines in the checked
baggage inspection system and associated
checked baggage resolution area conveyors, sortation piers make-up devices and
all associated cross-over and re-insertion
conveyor lines," Chin describes.
The efficiency and increased security
AGVs bring to Miami's operations may
be the most apparent on the outside, but
behind the scenes the machines create a
physically easier working environment for
their human counterparts.
"A real advantage from the end user's
perspective is not having to physically lift
the bags. The MIT brings the bags directly
to the operator. If they do have to open it,
they do so right on the tabletop of the
MIT. Upon search completion, the TSA
agent simply presses a button and the bag
gets delivered right back onto the conveyor
without having to do any lifting. So physically it's better for the employees that are
using the inspection rooms," adds Hipp.
Other advantages of the MITs over conventional baggage systems is the flexibility to make quick changes to the system
and its layout compared to the rigidity of
conveyors.
"With the Mobile Inspection Table, since
we're not tied in physically, we could change
the layout or flow in a matter of minutes or
hours as opposed to days to reroute something. So, if down the road TSA changes
best practices on how the room should be
laid out, how things should be detected, or

A Mobile
Inspection Table

how the process flow works, then it's a very
easy change," Alderman describes.
The MITs also cause less issues when
it comes to maintenance. If a single
MIT experiences a failure, it can easily be brought aside and worked on with
no hinderance to the rest of the system,
whereas one faulty conveyor can bring an
entire BHS to a standstill. With that in
mind, Hipp says that beyond the MITs,
Daifuku has installed a number of redundancies into the system to prevent system
standstills.
"Typically, on a conveyor, if there's a failure of a motor or the belt and that conveyor
shuts down. Since everything is sequential
on a conveyor, the entire system must stop
in order to fix it immediately before you are
able to get the system running again. With
the Mobile Inspection Table, you are able
to take individual parts out of the loop that
may be out of service and do the maintenance on the side," says Hipp.
Chin says construction has consisted of
three distinct phases: The CBIS building,
the South Terminal BHS system and the
new central terminal BHS system. Due to
a highly phased construction, airport passengers have noticed little inconvenience
from the extensive construction. Now that
the construction is reaching its end, it will
be business as usual for passengers despite

OCTOBER 2020

AviationPros.com

Photo courtesy of Daifuku
Airport Technologies

entire old system with the new upgraded
system. Although the South side was relatively modern with an inline screening
system, it didn't have the new technology of
screening systems - we're upgrading that.
"Additionally, we are centralizing the
security screening for both the Central and
South Terminals together in one location
into a new building rather than having that
spread out in multiple locations."
Todd Alderman, VP of Daifuku Airport
Technologies, adds that while a big part of
the project was geared around the aging
baggage systems, the greater focus was
on updating Miami's security screening
systems.
For that effort, 12 CTX 9800 SEIO ISD
machines, six per terminal, have been
installed.
Daifuku put in the original South Terminal screening system at Miami, a process
that began before 9/11 and there have been
a lot of lessons learned across the industry
since then in addition to an increase in the
screening process, Alderman says.
"The original system was designed and
installed in the early days of U.S. screening
systems prior to the rigorous screening systems that are required today. We have made
many improvements since then, so some of
the design of the conveyors surrounding it
are not best practice to today's standards.
That results in some inefficiencies, with
extra bags getting falsely identified as needing to be searched which creates more work
for the TSA in the hand search room," he
says. "The new machines utilize 3D imaging which enables operators to get a much
better evaluation of what's in the bag and
detect a lot broader profile of the alarming
materials that they'd be looking for."
Streamlining the process is exactly
the job of the MITs, which are essentially robots that automatically transport
suspect baggage directly to TSA officers
for searching. The MITs are designed to
improve the ergonomics and efficiency for
the TSA officers and open the egress within
the CBRA zone.
"The majority of this system is still traditional belt conveyor but then we pick up
the alarmed bags from the belt conveyor
automatically on the Mobile Inspection
Tables. The transfer is automatic and then

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