Mixed integer nonlinear programming for three-dimensional aircraft conflict avoidance

School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing, China
School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing, China, Beijing, China
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.27410v1
Subject Areas
Optimization Theory and Computation, Scientific Computing and Simulation
Keywords
Air Traffic Management, three-dimensional aircraft conflict avoidance, Mixed Integer Nonlinear Programming, global optimization
Copyright
© 2018 Cai et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Cai J, Zhang N. 2018. Mixed integer nonlinear programming for three-dimensional aircraft conflict avoidance. PeerJ Preprints 6:e27410v1

Abstract

The problem of aircraft conflict avoidance for Air Traffic Management systems is studied. In the scenario, aircraft are considered to fly within a shared three-dimensional airspace and not allowed to approach close less than a minimum safe separation during their flights in order to avoid various conflicts. This paper proposes a formulation of the three-dimensional conflict avoidance problem as a Mixed Integer Non-Linear Programming (MINLP) model where aircraft are allowed to change both their heading angle and velocity simultaneously to keep the separation. The validity of the proposed model is demonstrated by a comparison of the results from the MINLP model and the previous conflict avoidance models with one maneuver of the heading angle or the velocity. The numerical studies show that the MINLP model improves the efficiency of computation and maintain the safety of flights even by using a standard global optimization solver

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ Computer Science for review.

Supplemental Information

MINLP model code

MINLP model code

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27410v1/supp-2

code for initial aircraft configuration data

code for initial aircraft configuration data

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.27410v1/supp-3