A Concept and Implementation of Optimized Operations of Airport Surface Traffic

Abstract

This paper presents a new concept of optimized surface operations at busy airports to improve the efficiency of taxi operations, as well as reduce environmental impacts. The suggested system architecture consists of the integration of two decoupled optimization algorithms. The Spot Release Planner provides sequence and timing advisories to tower controllers for releasing departure aircraft into the movement area to reduce taxi delay while achieving maximum throughput. The Runway Scheduler provides take-off sequence and arrival runway crossing sequence to the controllers to maximize the runway usage. The description of a prototype implementation of this integrated decision support tool for the airport control tower controllers is also provided. The prototype decision support tool was evaluated through a human-in-the-loop experiment, where both the Spot Release Planner and Runway Scheduler provided advisories to the Ground and Local Controllers. Initial results indicate the average number of stops made by each departure aircraft in the departure runway queue was reduced by more than half when the controllers were using the advisories, which resulted in reduced taxi times in the departure queue.

Effect of Uncertainty on Deterministic Runway Scheduling

“…For example, if one problem set has 30% arrivals, it will of each departure weight class. The required separation between different weight class and arrivals is given below in Table 1, and is based on recent human-in-the-loop experiements 3 . Each departure aircraft is assigned one of six departure fixes, with all fixes having the same fraction of departure aircraft.…”

“…Runways have been identified as the main source of airport delay in existing literature 1 , and runway scheduling has been an active field for research. Runway scheduling is also a critical component in other airport optimization schemes, such as the metering of departures 2 which has been shown to provide significant benefits at an airport 3 . However, a majority of these are deterministic schedulers which do not incorporate the uncertainty in aircraft push back and taxiing.…”

A Mixed Integer Linear Program for Real-Time Computing the Optimal Push Back Time Windows

“…The program defined by objective (16) and constraints (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) solves for the optimal time window that is constrained to not intersect the conflict quadrilateral Q. For every additional conflict quadrilateral, the nine constraints (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33) are required to separate the time window.…”

A Mixed Integer Linear Programming Approach for Computing the Optimal Chance-Constrained Push Back Time Windows

“…During periods of heavy surface traffic, the NASA Ames Spot and Runway Departure Advisor [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] (SARDA) directs departing aircraft to remain at the gate with their engines off, and when cleared, they can proceed straight from the gate to the departure runway queue minimizing slowing down or stopping for other traffic [2] and still meet their target movement area and take-off times. This technique has the capability of significantly reducing fuel burn and engine emissions.…”