Autonomous ground support equipment promises a new chapter in airport operations. Delivering on that promise means designing machines that can also respond predictably when something goes wrong. Exertus Technical Sales Manager Ville Kivelä will bring this perspective to GSE Expo Europe 2026, moderating a roundtable on failure management and recovery in autonomous GSE.

GSE Expo Europe takes place on 15–17 September at FIL in Lisbon, Portugal, bringing together ground support equipment manufacturers, technology suppliers and customers from across the airport ground handling industry.

Ville’s session, “Fail safe. Recover fast.”, takes place on Thursday, 17 September, from 13:00 to 14:00 in the Autonomous Zone, at Autonomous Roundtable B42. It will explore how connected and autonomous GSE should respond to failures in connectivity, sensors, software or remote control, covering safe states, reduced functionality, operator intervention and recovery.

Connecting autonomy with dependable machine control

For a baggage tractor, cargo handling vehicle or other airport support machine, autonomous decisions must translate into controlled physical actions. Operation around aircraft, people and other vehicles makes the relationship between autonomy, machine control and safety particularly important.

Exertus brings together rugged control hardware, application software, system design, connectivity and virtual testing. Its expertise in functional safety and safety-related software supports the development of machine behaviour from normal operation through to fault handling. These capabilities provide a relevant foundation for GSE manufacturers developing increasingly automated equipment. Read more about Exertus’ approach to autonomous machinery.

From autonomous vessels to the airport apron

A practical example of Exertus’ role in autonomous systems is the USVA project, which develops unmanned surface vessels for maritime surveillance and critical infrastructure protection. Exertus MIC-series vehicle computers were selected as the onboard computing platform for the project’s pilot phase, with Atostek responsible for autonomy software and system integration using its Flexbot framework. Read the USVA project story.

The connection to GSE lies in the engineering approach: bringing specialist autonomy software together with adaptable computing hardware and the systems that control the machine. Although vessels and airport vehicles operate in different environments, this collaboration offers a useful perspective on building autonomous equipment around clearly defined responsibilities and dependable technology.

For Exertus, this is an opportunity to discuss how experience from demanding mobile machinery applications can support the next generation of ground support equipment.

Meet Ville in Lisbon

Ville will be available for meetings throughout all three exhibition days. Exertus will attend without a dedicated exhibition stand, so contact Ville directly to arrange a meeting and discuss your next machine control, automation or autonomy project.

GSE Expo Europe 2026
15–17 September 2026
FIL – Feira Internacional de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

Roundtable: “Fail safe. Recover fast.”
Thursday, 17 September | 13:00–14:00, Lisbon local time
Autonomous Zone | Autonomous Roundtable, B42

Arrange a meeting:
Ville Kivelä, Technical Sales Manager
ville.kivela@exertus.fi
+358 10 2089 014