Aircraft conflict detection methods: a data-driven performance assessment based on look-ahead time

Airspace’s increasing demand is a current concern without a solution. Different research projects aim to expand its available capacity by improving software performance, for example, concerning trajectory prediction and conflict detection methods. This research contributes to this goal by investigating the effect of different look-ahead time...

Improving climb and descent profiles in BlueSky using ATC performance models

Testing novel concepts in the allocation and use of aircraft is commonly done in air traffic simulators. Current day simulators rely on proprietary models and often propose questionable solutions. This paper uses BlueSky as simulator, in cooperation with performance models OpenAP and BADA. BlueSky aims to provide the user with full freedom to...

Exploring reinforcement learning methods for autonomous sequencing and spacing of aircraft

Research on reinforcement learning algorithms to play complex video games have brought forth controllers surpassing human performance. This paper explores the possibilities of applying these techniques to the sequencing and spacing of aircraft. Two experiments are performed. First a single aircraft must learn to fly a 4D trajectory using only...

Benefits of Direct Routing above Europe

As the amount of air traffic increases every year, the capacity of the current Air Traffic Control (ATC) structure is reaching its limit. Shifting the responsibility of aircraft separation from the ground to aircraft (free flight) eliminates the ATC constraint for aviation growth. Furthermore, free flight allows for direct routing of aircraft....

Accuracy of Conflict Count Models: Analyzing the effect of traffic scenario on conflict count models for unstructured and layered airspaces.

Decentralized airspace concepts have been proposed to increase the capacity of airspace. Previous research has showed that decentralized airspace concepts show great improvements in capacity, such as the Layers concept, where height rules are implemented, and unstructured airspace, where there are no procedural constraints. One aspect that...