An operational test facility that will open this year will give the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) the ability to test new, emerging and upgraded technologies, examine how to fuse different sensor systems at checkpoints, and improve the efficiency of its screener workforce, Mike Golden, assistant administrator for operational process and technology, tells TR2 in a recent interview.
The Transportation Security Integration Facility (TSIF), which will be located at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Va., will also allow TSA to pre-certify simple baggage handling systems equipped with an explosive detection system (EDS) that are typically installed somewhere behind a ticket counter in the baggage handling area of smaller airports and low-traffic terminals, Golden says. Currently TSA deploys manpower, in this case its contractor Battelle, to do the security certification on-site.
“What we’re looking at doing is developing pre-cert systems where basically I’ll take a particular manufacturer, I’ll bring them in, we’ll lay out the conveyor system, they’ll pre-program it, we’ll pre-certify that software and then if an airport has a small area they want to put this in they’ll buy that package,” he said. “It’s not just the machine they’ll buy but also the software package that has been certified.”
The ability to test software upgrades to existing inline EDS as well as new and emerging technologies that could be integrated into inline EDS will keep TSA from interfering with airport operations. Golden points to a pilot test of an upgrade to L-3 Communications’ [LLL] eXaminer 3DX EDS used in the inline baggage handling system at John Wayne Airport in California that was difficult to do efficiently without affecting operations because of the complexity of the system.
“That’s why it’s so important that as these inline systems come up and I need to test the functionality of upgrades and new technology that I do not do it in an operational environment,” he says.
For a more integrated checkpoint environment, Golden says the integration facility will also allow TSA to test “system of systems” concepts without disrupting airport operations. For example, he say, TSA is working with L-3, which is developing a way to fuse sensor data from a magnetometer with the sensor outputs from the company’s ProVision active millimeter wave whole body imaging system and put them on a single display. TSA is pilot testing ProVision at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Ariz.
“The weapons detector is still a separate unit from the millimeter wave system but our officer would actually on the millimeter wave display have the results of the weapons detector as well as the millimeter wave system,” Golden says.
TSA is also looking at how to integrate the new Advanced Technology (AT) X-Ray machines that will be used to screen carry-on baggage with the millimeter wave body imaging technology “so that we get a holistic picture of what’s happening within that checkpoint lane,” Golden says.
Cost is also a factor driving TSA to open an operational test facility.
Whether trying to explore sensor fusion at the checkpoint or test upgraded EDS as part of an inline baggage handling system, it means sending work crews in to modify the machines, late at night, which is expensive and can disrupt airport operations, he says.
In December TSA released a pre-solicitation notice for the design and construction build-out of the TSIF, which is planned as a small business set-aside. The notice also mentions the need to test high-speed EDS Baggage Handling System equipment.
Regarding workforce and process efficiencies, Golden says for example that the new facility will let TSA examine standards and technologies for better resolving alarms on bags passing through EDS.
“When you look at the reconciliation area where we do the final level of screening, we can look at standardizing protocols and technologies; technology that can assist our officers in moving bags. So we can work out a lot of operational concepts within this area also,” he says.
There will be no overlap between the TSIF and the Transportation Security Laboratory (TSL) managed by the Science & Technology Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, Golden says.
The TSL, which is based in Atlantic City, N.J., certifies a machine for its technical capabilities, in particular explosives detection. If the TSL issues a requirement for an inline EDS capable of screening 500 bags per hour, the integration facility will “optimize these baggage handling systems and our processes so that I can achieve 500 bags per hour,” Golden says. “And there are no capabilities at TSL to actually operationally test these systems.”
TSA hopes to have the two-story, 128,000 square foot integration facility operating by Aug. 1, 2008.