Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control

There are ongoing research efforts to implement En route arrival manager (AMAN), which decides arrival runways and controls cruise speed in en route airspace. Air traffic control operations that regulate arrival air traffic flows from en route airspace are considered effective in mitigating the cong...

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Main Authors: Katsuhiro Sekine, Furuto Kato, Tomoaki Tatsukawa, Kozo Fujii, Eri Itoh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2023-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10188812/
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author Katsuhiro Sekine
Furuto Kato
Tomoaki Tatsukawa
Kozo Fujii
Eri Itoh
author_facet Katsuhiro Sekine
Furuto Kato
Tomoaki Tatsukawa
Kozo Fujii
Eri Itoh
author_sort Katsuhiro Sekine
collection DOAJ
description There are ongoing research efforts to implement En route arrival manager (AMAN), which decides arrival runways and controls cruise speed in en route airspace. Air traffic control operations that regulate arrival air traffic flows from en route airspace are considered effective in mitigating the congestion close to destination airports. Therefore, this study proposes a scientific system design for operationally feasible En Route AMAN assisting air traffic controllers (ATCos) through runway-flow and inter-aircraft control. Herein, we devise an airline-oriented runway assignment rule that selects a target minimizing arrival taxi time in case of over-demand according to the maximum estimated through the stochastic distribution of inter-aircraft time and runway occupancy time. We also formulate speed control rules based on inter-aircraft spacing using simulation-based optimization and decision tree analysis to visualize the distinct strategies and rules for the traffic responsible for each ATCo. Furthermore, an agent-based simulation is performed to evaluate the system effectiveness in reducing the arrival delay. The simulation indicates 20-d arrival and departure at the Tokyo International Airport, Japan, between 06:00 and 23:00. The results show that the designed IF–THEN rules reduce the total arrival sequencing delay time and arrival taxi time by 21% (median, 55.8 s) and 6.9% (median, 24.6 s). Our findings suggest that truly optimal scheduled time of arrival (STA) and operationally feasible rules for ATCos could promise congestion relief while ensuring the interpretability and possibility of En Route AMAN implementation.
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spelling doaj.art-df7cff5642d1425daa9b6ab337ac02c32023-07-26T23:00:47ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362023-01-0111750937511110.1109/ACCESS.2023.329713610188812Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft ControlKatsuhiro Sekine0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6964-6318Furuto Kato1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6450-3745Tomoaki Tatsukawa2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0697-7897Kozo Fujii3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2070-6575Eri Itoh4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6957-4366Department of Information and Computer Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Information and Computer Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Information and Computer Technology, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, JapanDepartment of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JapanThere are ongoing research efforts to implement En route arrival manager (AMAN), which decides arrival runways and controls cruise speed in en route airspace. Air traffic control operations that regulate arrival air traffic flows from en route airspace are considered effective in mitigating the congestion close to destination airports. Therefore, this study proposes a scientific system design for operationally feasible En Route AMAN assisting air traffic controllers (ATCos) through runway-flow and inter-aircraft control. Herein, we devise an airline-oriented runway assignment rule that selects a target minimizing arrival taxi time in case of over-demand according to the maximum estimated through the stochastic distribution of inter-aircraft time and runway occupancy time. We also formulate speed control rules based on inter-aircraft spacing using simulation-based optimization and decision tree analysis to visualize the distinct strategies and rules for the traffic responsible for each ATCo. Furthermore, an agent-based simulation is performed to evaluate the system effectiveness in reducing the arrival delay. The simulation indicates 20-d arrival and departure at the Tokyo International Airport, Japan, between 06:00 and 23:00. The results show that the designed IF–THEN rules reduce the total arrival sequencing delay time and arrival taxi time by 21% (median, 55.8 s) and 6.9% (median, 24.6 s). Our findings suggest that truly optimal scheduled time of arrival (STA) and operationally feasible rules for ATCos could promise congestion relief while ensuring the interpretability and possibility of En Route AMAN implementation.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10188812/Agent-based simulationair traffic controlarrival managementdata-driven approachdecision tree analysis
spellingShingle Katsuhiro Sekine
Furuto Kato
Tomoaki Tatsukawa
Kozo Fujii
Eri Itoh
Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control
IEEE Access
Agent-based simulation
air traffic control
arrival management
data-driven approach
decision tree analysis
title Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control
title_full Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control
title_fullStr Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control
title_full_unstemmed Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control
title_short Rule Design for Interpretable En Route Arrival Management via Runway-Flow and Inter-Aircraft Control
title_sort rule design for interpretable en route arrival management via runway flow and inter aircraft control
topic Agent-based simulation
air traffic control
arrival management
data-driven approach
decision tree analysis
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10188812/
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