Volpe Center Deicing System Awarded U.S. Patent
After seven years of development and review, a patent for a deicing decision support tool was awarded to Jonathan Lee, PhD, of the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance and Traffic Management Systems Center of Innovation. This tool is being incorporated into a prototype Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) platform for operational trials at the nation's airports. In 2003, Lee was part of a Volpe Center team working to install a surface surveillance system at Detroit International Airport to gather one year's worth of aircraft surface movements data. At the suggestion of the sponsor, NASA Langley Research Center, Lee began exploring additional uses for this data.
Lee started to study the existing deicing system at Detroit for possible improvement, and developed a deicing decision support tool that takes account of the actual weather conditions, aircraft size and other aircraft in queue to schedule aircraft through the deicing pads in a faster, safer and more efficient manner. Information on estimated time to complete deicing processing can be available in real time to pilots, air traffic controllers and the deicing station managers. The Volpe Center's Office of Chief Counsel suggested that Lee seek a patent for the new system and assign his rights to U.S. DOT. With the assistance of Center attorney Wendell Mah, Lee prepared a patent application.
In May 2010, Lee was awarded Patent No. 7,725,410 B2 for "Method, Apparatus and System for Aircraft Deicing and Estimating Deicing Completion Times" by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The Volpe Center is currently incorporating the deicing system into a larger airport surface management prototype platform being developed for FAA. Field testing of the platform and deicing system will begin soon.
