CONTROL OF AIRPLANE

FOR GUARANTEED CONFLICT RESOLUTION

S. I. Kumkov
Institute of Mathematics and Mechanics, S.Kovalevskaya str. 16, 620219, Ekaterinburg, Russia
e-mail: kumkov@imm.uran.ru, fax: +7 (343)3742581, URL: http//www.imm.uran.ru

Keywords: airplanes, equations of motion, kinematics, horizontal plane, vertical plane, conflict resolution,
guaranteeing manoeuvre, iterational algorithm

Algorithms for resolution of a conflict situation between manoeuvering and non-manoeuvering

airplanes are elaborated. Motion of two airplanes in the horizontal plane (or in the vertical
plane) is described by a kinematic equation system, velocities of the airplanes are constant in
time. A manoeuvering airplane is controlled by variation of the angular velocity of its course
(or pitch) in the case of manoeuvering in the horizontal (or in the vertical) plane. Value of the
angular velocity is restricted by symmetrical geometric constraints. The case with complete
known information about motion of airplanes is considered.
Problem of elaboration of practically realizable schemes and controls for conflict resolution
is extremely important for providing safe air traffic. Consideration of existing practical for-
mulations [1] of such problems shows that analysis of a conflict and manoeuvres recommended
for its resolution are usually rather approximate by virtue both of engineering reasons and of
multi-criterion character of such problems. Some mathematical formulations for problems of
analysis and resolution of conflict situations are in [2–4].
The Technological Rules [1, 5] for operators of the air traffic managing system content the
following engineering demands to the resolving manoeuvre:
1) Forecast and detection of a conflict situation must be carried out in advance in time and
with a reserve in distance sufficient for implementation of the resolving manoeuvre.
2) To reduce a workload on an operator and computational complex of air traffic managing
system, resolution of a conflict must be realized, as a rule, by a manoeuvre of one airplane only.
The second airplane from the conflicting pair continues motion, keeps its course and does not
participate in resolution of this conflict situation.
3) A resolving manoeuvre is comprised of the following standard elements. The first part is
an S-wise avoidance manoeuvre of the minimal time that drives the airplane from its original
trace. This manoeuvre is implemented by control with extremal values of opposite signs on the
first and second parts of its time length. The second element is a line-wise segment for safe
flight-by with keeping its course unchanged. The last part is an S-wise returning manoeuvre
of the minimal time that drives the airplane back onto its original trace. This manoeuvre is
implemented by control with extremal values of opposite signs on the first and second parts of
its time length.
4) To minimize a time workload on an operator for resolution of a conflict situation and to
decrease a workload on the crew of the manoeuvering airplane, the length of the whole resolving
manoeuvre must be minimal in time and in space.
5) To exclude arising stipulated conflict situations with other airplanes, the lateral (or vertical)
deviation of the manoeuvering airplane from its original trace must be of the minimal necessary
value. Thus, the Rules demand the minimal resultant time of being the airplane outside its
original trace.
6) The lateral (or vertical) acceleration of an airplane during the resolving manoeuvre must
not exceed the given tolerance.
A conflict is resolved if the minimal (with respect to the time of their motions) distance
between the airplanes at the instant of the worst (most close) their encounter is provided equal
or larger than the given separation norm (safe distance).
The Rules considered have been formalized and directly used in formulation of the problem

1
of the guaranteed conflict resolution. The cases of non-cooperative control are considered: only
one of airplanes from the conflicting pair is prescribed for manoeuvering, the second airplane
does not manoeuver and keeps its course (or pitch) during the encounter and resolution of this
conflict situation. In both cases of determination of the manoeuvering airplane, a problem of
conflict resolution is formulated not as a differential game but as an optimization problem of
control.
Four variants for resolution of a conflict situation in the horisontal plane are considered: two
variants when one airplane prescribed for manoeuvering implements the avoidance manoeuvre
(changes its course) in the clock-wise direction and, respectively, in the counter clock-wise
direction and two variants when the other airplane prescribed for manoeuvering implements
the avoidance manoeuvre (changes its course) in the clock-wise direction and, respectively, the
counter clock-wise direction. The similar algorithms are realized for four variants of conflict
resolution by manoeuvering in the vertical plane. Here, there can exist two variants when one
manoeuvering airplane increases (or decreases) the pitch angle of its velocity and two variants
when the other airplane prescribed for manoeuvering implements the resolving manoeuvre
increasing (or decreasing) its pitch.
The backbone of the approach suggested is in homing the airplane’s position into a terminal
set of a special type. The approach can be extended on the case of information uncertainty
about airplanes motions and presence of disturbances.
Note that the optimality in the whole for the solutions obtained has not been proved, but
due to maximal taking into account the Rules demands, the solutions are exceptable for practi-
cal realization. For all possible variants of manoeuvres, the solvability condition for guaranteed
resolution of a conflict is derived. For various variants of conflict situations, numerical simula-
tion of resolving manoeuvres is fulfilled [6,7].
The work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 04–01–
96099) and by Corporation “New Informational Technologies in Aviation” (contract no. 53/2005).

References
[1] T.G. Anodina, A.A. Kuznetsov, and E.D. Markovich, Automatization of Air Traffic
Management, Transport, Moscow, 1992 (in Russian).
[2] A. Miele and T. Wang, “New Approach to the Collision Avoidance Problem for a Ship”,
International Game Theory Review, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 137–155, 2004.
[3] I.M. Mitchell, A.M. Bayen, and C. Tomlin, “A Time-Dependent Hamilton–Jacobi For-
mulation of Reachable Sets for Continuous Dynamic Games”, IEEE Transactions on Automatic
Control, vol. 50, no. 7, pp. 947–957, 2005.
[4] C. Tomlin, J. Lygeros, and S. Sastry, Conflict Resolution for Air Traffic Management:
a Study in Multi-Agent Hybrid Systems, Report of the Research under NASA Grant NAG-2-
1039. University of California, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences,
1998.
[5] Technological Rules for Air Traffic Managers, E.N. Korolev (Ed.), Vozdushnyi Transport,
Moscow, 2000 (in Russian).
[6] S.I. Kumkov, Algorithms for Resolution of Conflict Situation (Manoeuver onto a Special
Terminal Set), Report of the Research under NITA Contract no. 39/2001, IMM UrB RAS,
Ekaterinburg, 2002 (in Russian).
[7] S.I. Kumkov, Spatial Conflict Situations, Manoeuver in the Vertical Plane, Report of the
Research under NITA Contract no. 39/2001, IMM UrB RAS, Ekaterinburg, 2002 (in Russian).