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Applications to Air Traffic Management

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Metaheuristics

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Abstract

Air traffic management (ATM) is an endless source of challenging optimization problems. Before discussing applications of metaheuristics to these problems, let us describe an ATM system in a few words, so that readers who are not familiar with such systems can understand the problems being addressed in this chapter. Between the moment passengers board an aircraft and the moment they arrive at their destination, a flight goes through several phases: push back at the gate, taxiing between the gate and the runway threshold, takeoff and initial climb following a Standard instrument departure (SID) procedure, cruise, final descent following standard terminal arrival route (STAR), landing on the runway, and taxiing to the gate. During each phase, the flight is handled by several air traffic control organizations: airport ground control, approach and terminal control, en-route control. These control organizations provide services that ensure safe and efficient conduct of flights, from departure to arrival.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The waypoints are considered here as the nodes of the air route network. Note that a dual representation, where route segments are nodes and waypoints are edges, is also possible.

  2. 2.

    This quantification of conflicts can be done, for example, using the number of conflicts at the crossing point weighted by the difficulty of each conflict.

  3. 3.

    A functional airspace block is a set of sectors in which several teams of controllers are qualified. Airspace blocks are independently managed by these different teams, which work in relays with one another. Several sectors in the same airspace block can be merged and controlled by the same pair of controllers. However, two sectors from different airspace blocks cannot be merged.

  4. 4.

    Functional Airspace Block Central Europe.

  5. 5.

    Central Flow Management Unit.

  6. 6.

    Future ATM Concepts Evaluation Tool.

  7. 7.

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

  8. 8.

    Two aircraft are conflicting if the horizontal distance between them is less than 5 nautical miles and the vertical distance is less than 1000 feet.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire MAIAA (Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile), Toulouse, France

    Nicolas Durand, David Gianazza, Jean-Baptiste Gotteland & Charlie Vanaret

  2. Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Jean-Marc Alliot

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  1. Nicolas Durand
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  2. David Gianazza
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Correspondence to Nicolas Durand .

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  1. Laboratory LiSSi (EA 3956), Université Paris-Est Créteil, Créteil, France

    Patrick Siarry

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Durand, N., Gianazza, D., Gotteland, JB., Vanaret, C., Alliot, JM. (2016). Applications to Air Traffic Management. In: Siarry, P. (eds) Metaheuristics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45403-0_16

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