Joint Metering and Conflict Resolution in Air Traffic Control

This paper describes a novel optimization-based approach to conflict resolution in air traffic control, based on geometric programming. A key feature of this approach is its ability to also take into account various metering directives issued by the traffic flow management level, in contrast to most methods that focus purely on aircraft separation issues. Moreover, the proposed methodology can account for some of the nonlinearities present in the formulationsofconflictresolutionproblems,whileincurringonlyasmallpenaltyincomputationtimewithrespectto the fastest linear-programming-based approaches. Integer variables can be introduced to improve the quality of the solutions and to include combinatorial choices, for example, to optimize over aircraft sequences in merging streams. Simulation results demonstrate the efficiency of the approach on various aircraft separation problems, including miles-in-trail and minutes-in-trail restrictions through airspace fixes and boundaries.

[1]  James K. Kuchar,et al.  A review of conflict detection and resolution modeling methods , 2000, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[2]  Gary Wood,et al.  ATM Operational Concepts and Technical Performance Requirements , 2001 .

[3]  William P. Niedringhaus.  Stream Option Manager (SOM): automated integration of aircraft separation, merging, stream management, and other air traffic control functions , 1995, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern..

[4]  Lucio Bianco,et al.  New concepts and methods in air traffic management , 2001 .

[5]  E. Feron,et al.  Resolution of Conflicts Involving Many Aircraft via Semidefinite Programming , 2001 .

[6]  Jean-Marc Alliot,et al.  OPTIMAL RESOLUTION OF EN ROUTE CONFLICTS. , 1995 .

[7]  Yanjun Wang,et al.  Geometric Programming , 2009, Encyclopedia of Optimization.

[8]  Bart De Schutter,et al.  IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INTELLIGENT TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS Editor-In-Chief , 2005 .

[9]  Lorenz T. Biegler,et al.  Dynamic Optimization Strategies for Three-Dimensional Conflict Resolution of Multiple Aircraft , 2004 .

[10]  Michael S. Nolan,et al.  Fundamentals of Air Traffic Control , 1990 .

[11]  K. Zeghal.  A REVIEW OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES BASED ON FORCE FIELDS FOR AIRBORNE CONFLICT RESOLUTION , 1998 .

[12]  Nicolas Durand,et al.  An optimizing conflict solver for ATC , 1995 .

[13]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  Decentralized Cooperative Policy for Conflict Resolution in Multivehicle Systems , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[14]  G. D. Sweriduk,et al.  Optimal Strategies for Free-Flight Air Traffic Conflict Resolution , 1999 .

[15]  George T. Schmidt.  Beginning the Third Decade of the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics , 1998 .

[16]  Inseok Hwang,et al.  Protocol-Based Conflict Resolution for Air Traffic Control , 2007 .

[17]  R. Faure,et al.  Introduction to operations research , 1968 .

[18]  Claudio De Persis,et al.  Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control , 2002 .

[19]  Yinyu Ye,et al.  An infeasible interior-point algorithm for solving primal and dual geometric programs , 1997, Math. Program..

[20]  Eric Feron,et al.  Conflict-Free Conformance to En Route Flow Rate Constraints , 2002 .

[21]  Karl D. Bilimoriaand,et al.  Aircraft Conflict Resolution with an Arrival Time Constraint , 2002 .

[22]  David R. Schleicher,et al.  Conflict Detection and Resolution with Traffic Flow Constraints , 2002 .

[23]  C. Tomlin,et al.  Decentralized optimization, with application to multiple aircraft coordination , 2002, Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2002..

[24]  Stephen P. Boyd,et al.  Recent Advances in Learning and Control , 2008, Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences.

[25]  Eric Feron,et al.  Decentralized Cooperative Trajectory Planning of Multiple Aircraft with Hard Safety Guarantees , 2004 .

[26]  R.N.H.W. van Gent,et al.  CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF FREE FLIGHT WITH AIRBORNE SEPARATION ASSURANCE , 1998 .

[27]  M. Grassi,et al.  AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference , 2008 .

[28]  Stephen P. Boyd,et al.  A tutorial on geometric programming , 2007, Optimization and Engineering.

[29]  A. Rosenfeld,et al.  IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SYSTEMS , MAN , AND CYBERNETICS , 2022 .

[30]  Morten Bisgaard,et al.  Proceedings for AIAA Guidance Navigation and Control Conference , 2009 .

[31]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  Conflict resolution problems for air traffic management systems solved with mixed integer programming , 2002, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[32]  K. Bilimoria.  A Geometric Optimization Approach to Aircraft Conflict Resolution , 2000 .

[33]  S. Shankar Sastry,et al.  OPTIMAL COORDINATED MANEUVERS FOR THREE DIMENSIONAL AIRCRAFT CONFLICT RESOLUTION , 2001 .

[34]  S. Shankar Sastry,et al.  Conflict resolution for air traffic management: a study in multiagent hybrid systems , 1998, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control..

[35]  Stephen P. Boyd,et al.  Graph Implementations for Nonsmooth Convex Programs , 2008, Recent Advances in Learning and Control.