On-Demand Conflict Resolution Procedures for Air-Traffic Intersections

This paper develops a provably safe on-demand conflict resolution procedure (CRP) for intersecting routes in en route air-traffic control (ATC). Recent works have developed provably safe CRPs, which solve the conflict resolution for intersecting routes in a local manner that leads to decoupling of CRPs for different intersections. However, such a CRP is inefficient because it is always on, i.e., even in the absence of conflicts. This always-on CRP (even without conflicts) leads to unwanted CRP maneuvers resulting in increased travel time, travel distance, and required fuel. This paper removes the inefficiency of always-on CRPs by developing provably safe CRPs that can be activated on demand (when conflicts appear) to accommodate an impending conflict. Conditions are developed to guarantee safety during activation and deactivation of the CRP and the proposed on-demand approach is illustrated through an example route intersection.