Abstract
China has been gradually relaxing its ban on the use of low-altitude airspace across the country. To guarantee the high reliability of air traffic management (ATM), conflict detection and conflict resolution (CDR) approaches are indispensable to maintain safe separation between neighbouring small fixed-wing aircraft. In this study, we analyse a temporal and spatial integrated strategy for safety assessment purposes in opening the low-altitude urban airspace of Chinese pilot cities. First, we present a detailed mathematical description of the proposed algorithms based on a spatial grid partitioning system (SGPS). For our system, a conflict detection (CD) algorithm is designed to determine if two trajectories pass through the same grid space within overlapping time windows. A conflict resolution (CR) algorithm integrates a proposed time scheduling-based technique (TST) and vertical change-based technique (VCT), which operate under predetermined basic principles. Then, based on our novel CDR algorithms, a causal model is constructed in graphical modelling and analysis software (GMAS) to generate a state space that can provide a global perspective on scenario dynamics and better understanding of induced conflict occurrences. Finally, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach is practical and efficient.
Highlights
The Chinese State Council and military authorities jointly decided to open the country's low-altitude airspace to general aviation (GA) in November 2010 [1]
The balance between airspace capacity and customer demand is maintained by air traffic management (ATM) using a series of decision support tools that are applied to ATM system and ensured by advanced communications and navigation technology [5,6,7]
In future research on opening low-altitude airspace, CDR algorithms should place an emphasis on the verification of numerical, semiphysical simulations and flight test methods to develop autonomous collision avoidance systems for small fixed-wing aircraft that meet the requirements of given safety standards to accelerate the airspace opening process
Summary
The Chinese State Council and military authorities jointly decided to open the country's low-altitude airspace to general aviation (GA) in November 2010 [1]. To avoid collisions in low-altitude airspace, ATC enforces traffic separation rules, which ensure each aircraft maintains a minimum amount of empty space around it at all times. Traditional aircraft resolves the detected conflicts through simple altitude adjustments, which are determined by a traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) [16, 17] Because of their higher flexibility and manoeuvrability, small fixed-wing aircraft in low-altitude airspace should consider both altitude and velocity adjustment. Our conflict resolution (CR) algorithm integrates a time schedulingbased technique (TST) and vertical change-based technique (VCT), which both operate under predetermined basic principles These two techniques are applied to revise predefined trajectories by altering temporal and spatial information separately.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
