Use of the departure enhanced planning and runway/taxiway assignment system (DEPARTS) for optimal departure scheduling at busy airports

摘要

At many U.S. airports, aircraft encounter significant departure delays. These delays occur when the departure demand exceeds the airport departure capacity in a period of time. As a result, aircraft are delayed waiting in departure queues prior to takeoff longer than is absolutely necessary. These delays have an adverse effect on airlines and passengers in terms of disrupted flight connections and increased operating costs. Longer taxi times also increase pollution emissions. Airlines need improved accuracy in estimating take-off times for their flights to plan their operations more efficiently, especially at their hub airports. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) system needs improved information on aircraft push-back times to minimize departure queues and maximize runway throughput. Optimization of the flight sequence on each departure runway is difficult given the limited and inaccurate automated information on planned gate departure times, and on the current surface position of taxiing aircraft. A number of researchers are investigating the design and use of decision support tools to improve departure operations [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. Idris has researched measures of reliability in controlling departure operations [3]. Pujet has researched the area of modeling and minimizing taxi-out times [4]. The Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) has done previous research in this area, and developed a lab prototype for La Guardia departure operations [6]. Atkins and Brinton describe the development of a Surface Management System (SMS) that is "a decision support tool that will help controllers and air carriers collaboratively manage the movements of aircraft on the surface of busy airports, thereby improving capacity, efficiency, and flexibility" [7]. SMS is being developed by The NASA Ames Research Center in cooperation with the FAA. The Departure Enhanced Planning And Runway/Taxiway Assignment System (DEPARTS) has been developed by CAASD as a laboratory prototype to develop fast-time optimization algorithms and analyze data requirements for a future short-term departure scheduling capability. DEPARTS optimizes the runway assignment and sequencing for all flights planning to push-back from the airport gate at a busy airport in the next 10-30 minutes. The DEPARTS operational context and high-level design is described in Cooper, et al. [8] and in Ball, et al. [9]. The approach and results of DEPARTS simulation of Atlanta operations are described in Cooper et al. [10]. This paper gives an overview of previous results and discusses the algorithmic approach and current research in more detail.