Autonomous and Cooperative Trajectory Planning Based on Traffic Complexity Awareness

In order to achieve the autonomous Air Traffic Management in the Trajectory-Based Operation context, a novel autonomous and cooperative trajectory planning method in Free Route Airspace is proposed. In order to generate flight trajectories that are conflict-free, efficient and acceptable for both pilots and air traffic controllers in real-time operation, a multi-objective nonlinear integer model is formulated for the trajectory planning problem by reorganizing the flight trajectories in both horizontal and vertical dimension through integrated rerouting and flight level allocation. In particular, an air traffic complexity metric based on linear dynamical systems is used for this optimization problem to characterize the traffic situation in terms of stability. To facilitate collaborative decision-making of trajectory planning process for multiple aircraft in the airspace, a multi-aircraft cooperative optimization method is proposed based on the variable resolution search algorithm. A scenario of the en-route sector in Western China is used to test the effectiveness of the proposed method. Compared with the single maneuver and the sequential optimization method, the proposed cooperative trajectory planning method can provide better solutions for the autonomous system.