Archer Aviation says its AI-powered aviation foundation model, ZEE, has demonstrated the ability to predict aircraft movements across airport surfaces several minutes into the future. The technology is being developed as a decision-support tool for pilots and air traffic controllers, with the aim of identifying potential conflicts before they develop into safety risks.
ZEE uses a generative AI technique known as "conditional flow matching" to calculate a distribution of possible trajectories an aircraft could take. This is combined with a vision transformer trained using high-resolution satellite imagery, allowing ZEE to identify runways, taxiways and aprons and use the physical airport layout when calculating possible aircraft movements.
Archer says ZEE remains under development and larger-scale testing is now underway. The company describes the latest demonstration as a "frontier breakthrough" in its wider effort to develop what it calls "physical AI" for aerospace and defense.
