Constrained Position Shifting Research Articles

Efficiency-Based Airport Ground Conflict Detection and Resolution: Integrating Stand Hold Strategy with Constrained Position Shifting

Efficiency-Based Airport Ground Conflict Detection and Resolution: Integrating Stand Hold Strategy with Constrained Position Shifting

Improving aircraft approach operations taking into account noise and fuel consumption

While air transport brings very significant economic and social benefits to the cities and regions served by airports, aircraft noise is the single major cause of community opposition to airport operations, becoming a critical issue that affects the sustainability of future traffic growth. However, planning operations exclusively focusing on noise impact may result in an increase of fuel consumption or delays. This paper develops a suitable bi-objective model for landing aircraft, which finds a schedule that minimises noise impact, total fuel consumption and delays, under wake vortex separation and Constrained Position Shifting restrictions. The results of this model are compared with real operations in a major European airport to assess the potential level of improvements. By comparing with real data from Madrid-Barajas airport, the research shows potential improvements of up to 4.5% reduction of total fuel consumption (without increasing noise levels) only by modifying the sequence of arrivals, and up to 43% (without extra fuel consumption) of reduction in noise impact over the populations under study.

Minimizing deviation from scheduled times in a single mixed-operation runway

The dynamic nature of airports demands the development of scheduling algorithms that are computationally efficient and therefore amenable to replanning when new traffic events occur. The main objective of this research is to design an algorithm with very low computational times able to minimize delays in the scheduled times of arrival and departure flights in an airport with a mixed-operation runway, under wake vortex separation and Constrained Position Shifting restrictions. The simulated annealing algorithm obtains a 95% improvement on time delays in less than one second of computation for the test instances generated, which means that it can be used online for high-demand scenarios to reduce delays. It has also been tested in a public testbed as well as in a real environment, showing an improvement of 30% in the time delays of real operations at London Gatwick airport.

Algorithms for Scheduling Runway Operations Under Constrained Position Shifting

The efficient operation of airports, and runways in particular, is critical to the throughput of the air transportation system as a whole. Scheduling arrivals and departures at runways is a complex problem that needs to address diverse and often competing considerations of efficiency, safety, and equity among airlines. One approach to runway scheduling that arises from operational and fairness considerations is that of constrained position shifting (CPS), which requires that an aircraft's position in the optimized sequence not deviate significantly from its position in the first-come-first-served sequence. This paper presents a class of scalable dynamic programming algorithms for runway scheduling under constrained position shifting and other system constraints. The results from a prototype implementation, which is fast enough to be used in real time, are also presented.

Contributors

Contributors

An algorithm for computer assisted sequencing and scheduling of terminal area operations

A methodology is proposed for sequencing and scheduling of aircraft in high density terminal areas. Termed Constrained Position Shifting (CPS), this methodology is examined and its effectiveness tested. Potential capacity improvements are noted over the First-Come, First-Served, Runway (FCFS-RW) strategy, especially during peak periods.

The dynamic scheduling of aircraft in high density terminal areas

We find the most efficient (airport) runway utilization by using a methodology which we call Constrained Position Shifting (CPS). We examine this methodology from the perspectives of both pilots and air traffic controllers by simulation. The results indicate that significant and equitable improvements in system performance are achieved, especially during peak periods.