Research Of Taxiing Route Planning For Aircraft Based On Surface Hotspots

Currently, the surface topology at large domestic aerodromes with increasing traffic flow is becoming more complex, under the condition of the limited aerodrome resources, more hotspots where taxiing conflict occurs between aircraft appear is gradually increasing. To effectively increase aerodrome capacity and guarantee a safe aircraft surface operation, it is necessary to identify those hotspots, rate the hotspot’s risk and then optimize the aircraft taxiing route according to the results of previous two steps.Firstly, the surface topology is abstracted and modeled as node-path model by using theory of directed graph, and the values of each node-path section including operation rules and geographic information are assigned. Then, the modeling process for runway, taxiway and apron is illustrated as well as the motion model of taxiing aircraft, and the feasibility and reliability for the aforementioned models is justifiedBy processing and analyzing historical surface surveillance data of a given aerodrome with node-path model, the characteristics of taxiing aircraft’s speed variation and taxiway operation rules are obtained, and meanwhile an algorithm to identify aerodrome surface hotspot is proposed. Moreover, the time-space distribution and the cause for those identified hotspots are analyzed. To determine the risk level for the identified hotspots, the standard for categorizing hotspot by risk level is established as well.The aircraft taxiing routes along part of those identified hotspots are optimized for instance, by using mechanism of taxi selection and avoidance at hotspots, and an optimization model of aircraft taxiing route based on time-space distribution of hotspots is proposed as well as its restrictions. A simulation to verify above optimization model is conducted with operational data of aircraft taxiing along the hotspots during a period of time. Simulation results show that the total taxiing time for those selected aircraft is reduced by238seconds by using the proposed optimization model, and the hotspots are effectively avoided during taxiing. Therefore, the risk level of hotspots is decreased, which is significant to the aerodrome operation efficiency and safety.