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Applied Game Theory to Enhance Air Traffic Control in 3D Airspace

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Abstract

The popularity of air transportation, both for personal and commercial uses, has been growing in recent years. As a result, the traffic volume in the airspace is constantly increasing, which leads to the higher chances of conflicts among aircraft. In air traffic management, conflict detection and resolution are challenging and stressful tasks due to the highly dynamic nature of aircraft flight plans as well as the interdependency among pilots’ decisions. Therefore, reliable and comprehensive decision-making techniques are necessary to deal with such conflicts in the airspace in a timely manner. In this regard, innovative technological developments are essential to assist decision-makers. In this paper, we propose a semi-decentralized, three-stage algorithm based on game theory to resolve potential conflicts among multiple aircraft traveling in a 3D shared airspace. The result from the algorithm shows that deviation costs are highly sensitive to the level of congestion in the airspace. The proposed algorithm provides useful information for air traffic control and pilots to enhance their coordination and facilitate decision-making procedures in scenarios with single and multiple conflicts during both nominal and deviated-from-nominal situations.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been funded in part by the Federal Aviation Administration through its Air Transportation Centers of Excellence (CoE) in Technical Training and Human Performance (TTHP) with award 16-C-TTHP-OK-021. The FAA has sponsored this project through the Center of Excellence for Technical Training and Human Performance. However, the agency neither endorses nor rejects the findings of this research. The presentation of this information is in the interest of invoking technical community comment on results and conclusions of the research. The authors further acknowledge the contributions of the following individuals from the University of Oklahoma: Nafiseh Ghorbani-Renani, graduate students in the School of Industrial and Systems, S. Lakshmivarahan, Professor in the School of Computer Science, and Robert G. Wood, Assistant Director of the FAA CoE TTHP.

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  1. School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Oklahoma, 202 W. Boyd St., Rm. 124, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    Alireza Rangrazjeddi, Andrés D. González & Kash Barker

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  1. Alireza Rangrazjeddi
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Rangrazjeddi, A., González, A.D. & Barker, K. Applied Game Theory to Enhance Air Traffic Control in 3D Airspace. J Optim Theory Appl 196, 1125–1154 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10957-023-02165-9

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