ArcGis indoor mapping at airport

[SonoraSoftware]

Hello members,

      I am new with the arcGis concept. I want to build an application(ios and android) with which I can use indoor navigation inside airports. However I am completely at loss in understanding where to start with. Like

1) Whether arcGis has a ready database for all airports with which I can show indoor maps ?

2) Will it work on GPS or do I need wifi ?

3) Who will provide me with the data , and what kind of cost will it incur and so on.

Thanks.

[RobertBorchert]

Most larger airports already seem to have maps of their airports.  An issue with trying to make navigation inside a large building is going to be location. GPS has a harder time working inside of a building, especially ones with lots of metal. Wi-Fi probably would not work unless there was a free Wi-Fi network through out the airport.  And even then Wi-Fi is not very good at location. If you have an iPhone or tablet try using find my iPhone and see how close it gets. Last time I used it on my daughters phone it located the phone out in the middle of the street about 3 houses down. It was actually under a sweatshirt in her room.

As far as acquiring the data you may have to get it direct from the airport or the FAA

The Mall of America used to have  an internal navigation concept. Using Google Maps you could find your location inside the mall and navigate to a store you wanted.  However, it had issues with location and which floor you were on.  The app was neat but terribly ineffective. I went to the mall after it rolled out and it would take a long time for it to figure out where I was. 

However, something to consider is that it might be is they might not make the data available to you because it could be considered a security issue for that kind of technology to be applied in an airport.

[CarlosSilva]

Hi there.... As the "GIS guy" at the Vancouver International Airport, let me just say that YES, its a HUGE challenge, and straight out of the gate, if the airport in question doesn't have a decent Wifi and cell network coverage, your app is 'Dead on arrival". 

ESRI has some tools, and modelling an airport is not unlike a university campus, or a mall. 

https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=06f730e8e3d14365adb119842340e7c7 

The bigger question is how your app will manage to maintain & update all the changes that occure within the airport Terminals? There's always lots of changes at airports/malls/campuses, and there's no solid "standard" that all these orgs follow. Even then, there's no central API where one can get it from either. 

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it was a big challenge for YVR when we undertook it, and still requires a lot of maintaining internally even with our own app. I cover part of the mapping challenge here at the FME international users conference last year.... 

YVR and the Indoor Mapping Experience - FME UC 2017 - YouTube 

[XanderBakker]

The first link shared by Carlos Silva is related to a new product Esri is working on: ArcGIS Indoors. One of the early adopters is Schiphol airport in the Netherlands. So, Esri is working on a solution, but it is not available yet.

Related to this topic there is a nice blog https://community.esri.com/groups/applications-prototype-lab/blog/2018/02/01/indoor-location-prototy... by Thomas Emge  from the https://community.esri.com/groups/applications-prototype-lab