OPT@ATM: Optimization Methods for Large Air Traffic Management Problems

In the project “OPT@ATM: Optimization Methods for Large Air Traffic Management Problems” we will study large optimization problems stemming from air traffic management (ATM).

High air traffic volumes are accompanied with high environmental impact and an increased complexity for air traffic control officers (ATCOs).

If we want to alleviate this impact---which is crucial for further operation---we need to solve large planning problems optimally.

These ATM optimization problems are characterised by a large set of constraints, including physical limits, legal restrictions, weather impact, and organisational procedures. The complexity only increases due to new technologies, like remote towers.

While there exists an extensive toolbox for solving both large linear and (mixed) integer programs, we need to deepen the theoretical analysis of several large ATM planning problems to obtain solutions that reflect then complete real-world scenario and which, hence, can yield the desired results on environmental impact and ATCO workload.Moreover, the dynamic and stochastic nature of aviation make it almost impossible to find solutions to the optimization problems that will stay optimal irrespectively of changes in the planning environment.

To integrate this, we will study robust optimization for the ATM problemsThe research in the 4-year project will be driven by the applicant docent C. Schmidt, docent V. Polishchuk, Dr. T. Polishchuk, docent E. Rönnberg, and a PhD student.