Hierarchical Agent Based System for General Aviation CD&R Under Free Flight

Conflict detection and resolution is a critical capability for the realization of free flight. A particularly demanding situation within this environment occurs when multiple traffic and weather conflicts arise. In this paper, an agent based hierarchical system is developed that attempts to provide optimal and conflict free flight path guidance in situations where more than one type of conflict exists. An intelligent executive guidance agent, acting as a high-level arbitrator, receives guidance information from lower-level weather and traffic agents. When the flight path guidance from the two agents conflicts, the executive agent arbitrates by considering the spatial and temporal characteristics of the conflicting guidance. It classifies them as either tactical or strategic in nature, and then prioritizes them according to a pre-defined rule base of conflict priorities. The executive agent acts as a fuzzy controller, gradually switching guidance between the weather agent and traffic agent to provide conflict free flight path guidance. This paper describes the validation of the agent system with an existing realtime flight simulation, and integration of the agent system with a pilot user interface and flight management system. Finally, the paper presents the results of several test scenarios using real-time simulation, which demonstrates the capacity of the agent system to detect and resolve co-existing weather and traffic conflicts. 2002 by the author(s).

Hierarchical Agent Based System for General Aviation CD&R Under Free Flight Conference Paper