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Departure sequencing systems and methods

  • US 9,437,114 B2
  • Filed: 03/15/2013
  • Issued: 09/06/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method for departure sequencing of aircraft at an airport, the method comprising:

  • creating, by a processor, a graph network representing an airport, the graph network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of links,wherein the plurality of nodes include a gate node, airlinks, a runway with an entrance node and an exit node, and a runway crossing with a crossing node and ground links;

    associating, by the processor, business rules to a sequence of events, state transitions and an aircraft entity in the graph network,wherein the business rules utilize real-time airport characteristics including rates and configuration to drive simulation parameters,wherein business rules are associated with aircraft path, pushback time, taxi speed and runway procedures;

    iteratively executing, by the processor, a graph network model to generate modeled results;

    scheduling, by the processor, events multiple times to model the taxi procedure for the aircraft entity,wherein the events for the aircraft entity that is departing include;

    scheduling the aircraft entity departure time that is modeled on gate node business rules;

    initializing the aircraft entity flight status that is modeled on gate node business rules;

    moving the departing entity on a ground link;

    calculating a time for the aircraft entity to pass a link distance that is retrieved from historical speed table business rules for the ground link;

    in response to the aircraft entity approaching a node, the next ground link having available capacity and the node not being occupied by other aircraft, allowing the aircraft entity to occupy the node and enter the node areachecking potential future directional head-to-head aircraft conflicts with other aircraft to avoid gridlock;

    removing the aircraft entity from a last ground link;

    adding the aircraft entity to a next ground link;

    in response to other aircraft waiting on the last ground link, triggering to move the other aircraft forward as more space is made available on the ground link;

    releasing the node of the currently occupying aircraft;

    in response to the other aircraft waiting for the node, creating a trigger to enter the node area for the other aircraft;

    calculating and recording statistics of taxi time;

    implementing business rules for checking runway blockage by arrival or crossings; and

    after a take off, triggering another take off event in response to the aircraft entity waiting on the runway entrance node and no blockage is applied;

    scheduling, by the processor, multiple times the time for the aircraft entity to pass the current runway node to model the runway crossing for the aircraft entity;

    repeatedly executing, by the processor, the graph network to obtain suggested gate pushback times for a plurality of aircraft at the airport;

    calibrating, by the processor, a parameter of the graph network model utilizing historical aircraft flight information for the airport; and

    creating, by the processor, calibrated parameters based on different airport operating characteristics.

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