Abstract
This paper proposes and evaluates a new airline disruption management strategy using multi-agent system modelling, simulation, and verification. This new strategy is based on a multi-agent negotiation protocol and is compared with three airline strategies based on established industry practices. The application concerns Airline Operations Control whose core functionality is disruption management. To evaluate the new strategy, a rule-based multi-agent system model of the AOC and crew processes has been developed. This model is used to assess the effects of multi-agent negotiation on airline performance in the context of a challenging disruption scenario. For the specific scenario considered, the multi-agent negotiation strategy outperforms the established strategies when the agents involved in the negotiation are experts. Another important contribution is that the paper presents a logic-based ontology used for formal modelling and analysis of AOC workflows.
Highlights
Airlines cope with many disruptions of different nature that implicitly or explicitly test their resilience on a regular basis
Current Airline Operations Control (AOC) practice consists of a coordination process between many human operators, each of which plays an essential role in disruption management
The scenario concerns a mechanical problem with an aircraft at Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport, aiming for a long-haul flight to a fictitious airport in the Pacific, which is indicated by the code PCF
Summary
Airlines cope with many disruptions of different nature that implicitly or explicitly test their resilience on a regular basis. These disruptions may interact with each other, potentially creating a cascade of emerging disturbances that may span over different spatial as well as time scales, ranging from affecting only one aircraft or crew, up to a group of aircraft [1]. Consideration of the aircraft routings, crew, maintenance, weather, customer needs, security and turnaround processes complicate AOC. Current AOC practice consists of a coordination process between many human operators, each of which plays an essential role in disruption management (see Fig. 1). To manage disruptions in a resilient way, advanced forms of coordination between human operators and automation are required. This paper aims at evaluating a new coordination approach based on multi-agent negotiation and comparing it with existing strategies in the context of a realistic operational scenario
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