Airborne collision avoidance in mixed equipage environments

Over the past few years, research has focused on the use of a computational method known as dynamic programming for producing an optimized decision logic for airborne collision avoidance. There have been a series of technical reports, conference papers, and journal articles summarizing the research, but they have primarily investigated two-aircraft encounters with only one aircraft equipped with a collision avoidance system. This thesis looks at recent research on coordination, interoperability, and multiple-threat encounters. In situations where an aircraft encounters another aircraft with a collision avoidance system, it is important that the resolution advisories provided to the pilots be coordinated so that both aircraft are not instructed to maneuver in the same direction. Interoperability is a related consideration since new collision avoidance systems will be occupying the same airspace as legacy systems. Resolving encounters with multiple intruders poses computational challenges that will be addressed in this thesis. The methodology presented in this thesis results in logic that is safer and performs better than the legacy Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). To assess the performance of the system, this thesis uses U.S. airspace encounter models. The results indicate that the proposed methodology can bring significant benefit to the current airspace and can support the need for safe, non-disruptive collision protection as the airspace continues to evolve.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Asmar, Dylan M. (Dylan Mitchell)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jonathan P. How and Mykel J. Kochenderfer.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82477

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/82477