A Collision Detection and Resolution Multi Agent Approach Using Utility Functions

Free Flight is the concept introduced by NASA and FAA in order to change the aviation of the 21st century, allowing for pilots to choose dynamically (¿on the fly¿) their nominal paths. Despite its many advantages as opposed to today´s situation, the free flight concept raises many new issues that need to be addressed before being applicable, with the main interest focusing on conflict detection and resolution (CD&R), in order to ensure the safety of the aircrafts. In this paper we present a decentralized CD&R approach using agents, as well as a general multi-agent framework where not only the proposed but new agent-based approaches may be implemented and tested.