On modeling the air traffic control coordination in the collision avoidance problem by mixed integer linear optimization

Abstract

A mixed integer linear optimization model is presented for providing a cooperative system between Air Traffic Control Officers who manage the airspace for aircraft conflict detection and resolution. Elsewhere we have introduced the model for dealing with velocity and altitude changes in a given air sector. In this work, we extend the model to cover the important problem of coordinating the decisions of the Air Traffic Control Officers of different air sectors. The new model allows the aircraft to ascend or descend one or more altitude levels. It is so tight that a state-of-the-art mixed integer linear optimization solver provides the solution in a very affordable computing time even for large-scale instances. It is worth pointing out that only in very few pilot instances of the testbed, the software engine needs to use the branch-and-cut phase of the solver.