ONET - Agent & Baggage Tractor Tracking at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport
Operational context : coordinating ground handling activities
Ground handling operations at large international airports require constant coordination between baggage sorting facilities, ground teams and aircraft. Agents and baggage tractors operate across a mix of indoor environments—such as baggage sorting areas—and outdoor airside zones, where operational constraints and time pressure are particularly high.
Before the deployment of a real-time location solution, mission coordination relied on fragmented information, limited visibility on agent and vehicle positions, and manual reporting. This resulted in inefficiencies at baggage sorter infeed points, delays in baggage transfer and limited traceability of ground operations.
The objective was to provide a unified indoor/outdoor operational view, enabling better coordination of missions, smoother workflows and improved operational traceability.
Project scope and coverage
The project covers a representative portion of ground handling operations and includes:
50+ agents and baggage tractors tracked in real time
Coverage of both indoor zones (baggage sorting facilities) and outdoor zones (aprons, aircraft areas)
A multi-zone, multi-mission deployment, supporting dynamic operational workflows
This scope ensures continuity of visibility as agents and vehicles move across operational boundaries.
How the solution works : smartphone-based location and mission tracking
Pole Star deployed a smartphone-based location solution powered by NAO® Mobile. Agents and baggage tractors are geolocated directly via professional mobile devices, providing continuous tracking across indoor and outdoor environments without dedicated vehicle hardware.
This real-time location layer enables operational teams to assign, trigger and monitor missions dynamically. Movements are tracked continuously, allowing supervisors to identify congestion points, particularly at baggage sorter infeed areas, and take corrective actions before bottlenecks impact operations.
All missions and movements are automatically recorded, enabling mission logging, operational traceability and the production of comprehensive statistics and performance reports.
Real-time supervision and operational intelligence
Supervisors access a consolidated operational view through dedicated interfaces, allowing them to monitor agent and vehicle positions in real time, follow mission execution and analyze workflows across zones.
This supervision layer transforms raw location data into actionable operational intelligence, supporting better decision-making, workflow optimization and continuous improvement of ground handling processes.
Pole Star architecture and integration
The solution relies on Pole Star’s airport-ready location platform:
NAO® Mobile SDK for smartphone-based indoor and outdoor localization
NAO® Viewer for real-time supervision, mission monitoring and analytics
The architecture is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing airport systems and operational workflows, ensuring interoperability and scalability.
Operational impact and benefits
The deployment delivers clear operational improvements:
Optimized baggage handling workflows
Reduced processing delays
Improved coordination between agents and vehicles
Consolidated indoor/outdoor operational visibility
By providing real-time location, mission tracking and operational analytics, Pole Star enables more efficient and reliable ground handling operations in complex airport environments.
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