Air traffic control using genetic search techniques

Abstract

Genetic search techniques constitute an optimization methodology effective for solving discontinuous, non-convex, nonlinear, or non-analytic problems. This paper explores the application of such techniques to a non-analytic event-related air traffic control problem, that of runway assignment, sequencing and scheduling of arrival flights at an airport with multiple runways. Several genetic search formulations are developed and evaluated with a representative arrival traffic scenario. The results exemplify the importance of the selection of the chromosomal representation for a genetic search problem.