Hierarchical control with prioritized MPC for conflict resolution in air traffic control

Abstract

We present a hierarchical solution to the problem of collision avoidance in air traffic control utilizing priority-based Model Predictive Control. First, we abstract the physical aircraft dynamics to simplified ones. Then, we design a centralized model predictive controller that takes into account the physical limitations of the aircraft, such as input constraints and turning rates, as well as the minimum separation safety constraints among the aircraft. We include the effects of bounded winds on the simplified dynamics at the optimization level and show how to exploit the spatial correlation in the wind statistics in order to reduce the conservatism in the separation constraints. This results in a mixed-integer linear program that can be solved online for problems of realistic size. The obtained solution is translated through the flight management system to appropriate inputs to be applied to the physical aircraft dynamics. Monte Carlo simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the scheme.