Addressing passenger risk uncertainty for aviation security screening

The preeminent objective of passenger and baggage screening, within the aviation security system, is to prevent prohibited items from entering the airport terminal and getting put onboard a commercial aircraft. Due to constraints on the screening device capacities, as well as limited budgets and personnel resources, only a fraction of the passengers may be screened at the highest security levels. Sequential passenger assignment policies have been formulated through dynamic programming and nonlinear control. However, both of these approaches rely on a known distribution of passenger risk. Estimation algorithms are presented in this paper that address various levels of uncertainty in the passenger risk distribution, which can be applied to existing passenger assignment policies. Simulation results are reported to illustrate the sensitivity to variations in the unknown distribution parameter and to demonstrate that the prudent practice of overestimating the overall population risk level produces a larger number of improperly screened passengers and a lower level of security in comparison to underestimating passenger risk. The overall expected security is increased, and the sensitivity to variations in the overall population risk level is decreased, by integrating online estimation of passenger risk into security screening assignment decisions, the findings of which are noted as key contributions of this work.

• Order URL:
  • http://transci.journal.informs.org/content/46/2/189.full.pdf+html
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1767714
• Authors:
  • Lee, Adrian J
  • Jacobson, Sheldon H
• Publication Date: 2012-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 189-203
• Serial:
  • Transportation Science
  • Volume: 46
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
  • ISSN: 0041-1655
  • Serial URL: http://transci.journal.informs.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Baggage screening; Civil aviation; Estimation theory; National security; Passenger screening; Passenger security; Risk assessment; Uncertainty
• Uncontrolled Terms: Parameter estimation
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Security and Emergencies; I70: Traffic and Transport;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01372985
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 15 2012 4:04PM