Geographic Information System for Air Traffic Optimization Based on Simulated Annealing in Training Environment

To ensure the safety and fluidity of air traffic, the air traffic controller applies a set of rules dictated by the ICAO, called separation rules. For this, the controller must first undergo training based in part on practical work in simulated traffic management. From a traffic configuration given by flight plans (FPL) of an exercise, the trainee controller can detect any conflicts that may arise between each pair of aircraft and act accordingly by changing part of the FPL of the one of the planes (or both) so as to avoid a risk of collision. At the end of the exercise, a debriefing is organized to discuss the effectiveness of the trainee's decisions and compare them with the solutions proposed by his instructor. We propose in this work, to reinforce this training by proposing to the trainee a tool which can generate an additional solution (in addition to that of the instructor). For this, we use a GIS for geographic data and a metaheuristic, simulated annealing, for traffic optimization. The objectives to be achieved are: the elimination of conflicts between aircraft, the minimization of the distance traveled by the aircraft and the minimization of the changes made in relation to the initial flight plan. The evaluation of this work goes through several tests carried out on part of the Algerian airspace with the same practical exercises used in training.