This Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Project will further the air traffic control and air traffic management research being conducted by Georgia Tech mechanical engineering doctoral student Adan Vela. Mr. Vela is advised by Professor William Singhose and Professor John-Paul Clarke at Georgia Tech. This award will allow Mr. Vela to collaborate with Professor Daniel Delahaye at École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (ENAC) in Toulouse, France, to develop novel algorithms to control and evaluate air traffic flow.
The specific research objectives are to develop a real-time air traffic resolution algorithm to maintain safe air traffic separation over three-dimensional spatial trajectories; pose air traffic resolution problems as an optimization program that considers various cost aspects of air traffic control and fairness; study and verify performance improvements of algorithm over existing air traffic control methods using simulated flight data; and formulate methods for determining the bounds of air traffic rates within which the algorithm will ensure safe operation. The core purpose of this research is to enable safe and efficient management of the US airspace even under increased traffic loads. Furthermore, application of proposed algorithms is expected to reduce overall operational costs in addition to reducing fuel emissions. This project has strong mutual international benefits and will help to simulate further research and educational collaboration between Georgia Tech and ENAC.
