Path Planning for Conflict Resolution in Free Flight System: Optimization Based on Linear Programming

Abstract

Air traffic congestion is one of the major challenges being faced by current air traffic management system all over the world. Congestion is mainly due to the incapability of radar based air traffic controllers to meet today’s increased air transportation demands. Free flight concept which provides each aircraft the freedom to self optimize their routes has been recently proposed as solution to the problem of air traffic congestion. Avionics community is now working towards the realization of this concept. Conflict detection between aircraft and its subsequent resolution are the challenging tasks in the implementation of free flight concept. Once a conflict is detected, it can be resolved by altering the aircraft nominal route by changing aircraft’s velocity or/and heading angle and when the conflict is avoided, the aircraft may return to its original optimal path. Also it is desirable to do all these path changes in minimum time so as to minimize the delay and fuel consumption. An efficient path planning algorithm is thus required to optimize the changes in velocity and heading angle that must be followed by the aircraft during conflict resolution maneuvers. In this paper, a path planning algorithm based on linear programming is adopted to ensure conflict free path in minimum time. With this algorithm the autopilot can resolve the conflict effectively. The effectiveness of the algorithm is valiadted through simulation studies.
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