Bidirectional Search Algorithm for Airport Ground Movement

Abstract

The air traffic ground movement management is a main problem for airports. The best optimization of ground movements would reduce flight delays and overall travel costs. This article proposes a new routing algorithm to provide the shortest route based on three algorithms that allow a good planning of ground movements. These three algorithms are iterative: they allow you to plan the trajectory of an aircraft one after the other. The three algorithms are guaranteed as a real-time decision support tool for air traffic controllers, but they each have strengths and weaknesses. A first version is described using the classic Dijkstra algorithm, then the classic Dijkstra version has been extended by a bidirectional version. Both algorithms provide an optimal solution, but the cost of computing time remains relatively long despite an improvement with the use of bidirectional Dijkstra. A third A* algorithm is used. The limitation of this one being that it does not guarantee an optimal solution despite a faster calculation time cost. To eliminate the weaknesses of each algorithm studied, a new Hybrid A* algorithm is therefore presented here. It integrates the advantages of each algorithm to reduce computation time and optimize the search for the shortest path while maintaining a minimum execution time to ensure the feasibility of planned trajectories in a reduced time. This model has been expanded to address the feasibility of planned trajectories while avoiding conflicts between aircraft and evaluated on the model of Casablanca airport Med V.