Maneuver design for multiple aircraft conflict resolution

Ronojoy Ghosh, Claire J. Tomlin

Abstract: Today, with air traffic rates in the United States growing by 5% annually, and those across the Pacific Rim by more than 15% annually, the problem which poses the greatest challenge to air transportation in the United States and abroad is the design of a safe and efficient method to automate air traffic control. This paper presents an overview of two methods for conflict-free planning in air traffic control. The first is a kinematic planner based on potential fields for which we prove kinematic safety for two- and three-aircraft maneuvers. The second is a real-time hybrid systems implementation of multiple aircraft conflict resolution. We conclude with a comparison of the two methods with emphasis on computational effort and complexity of analysis.