A simulation approach for aircraft cargo loading considering weight and balance constraints

Air cargo transport is a growing industry in parallel with world trade growth and increasing e-commerce. It is performed by the passenger aircraft belly and the pure cargo air crafts, i.e., the freighters. Assignment of Unit Load Devices (ULDs) to the specific positions on the freighter is performed by loadmasters by manual or semi-manual methods. As the global air cargo transport traffic gets busier, the importance of timely loading with minimum error increases. Therefore, digitalization of the air cargo loading process is needed. This study aimed to write a program that automatically performs the ULD assignment by simulating the loading process performed by the experienced loadmasters and considering the weight and balance constraints. The SEMMA (sample, explore, modify, model, assess) model is used while analyzing the data. Fifty real-world setting data were used to evaluate the program. The ULD assignment by the program and the loadmasters by semi-manual loading were compared regarding time and center of gravity by the Mann Whitney U test. The results demonstrated that the program could load all the given sets of ULDs, as efficiently as a loadmaster with a similar center of gravity in a shorter period of time. In conclusion, digitalization of the ULD assignment is possible, which needs to be improved to cover all the constraints.