An Anytime Algorithm for Chance Constrained Stochastic Shortest Path Problems and Its Application to Aircraft Routing

Abstract

Aircraft routing problem is a crucial component for flight automation. Despite recent successes, challenges still remain when the environment is dynamic and uncertain. In this paper, we tackle the following two challenges. First, when the environment is uncertain, it is much safer if the route planner can guarantee a specified level of safety. Second, when the environment is dynamic, the planner needs to adapt to the changes in the environment quickly. To address these challenges, we present three contributions. First, we propose formulating the aircraft routing problem under a dynamic and uncertain environment as a chance constrained stochastic shortest path (CC-SSP) problem. Second, we introduce an anytime algorithm for the CC-SSP problem, which is effective in a dynamic environment with limited planning time. To be more specific, we present two versions of the algorithm and compare their performances. Third, we show that the algorithm can be generalized to solve a larger class of problems called chance constrained partially observable Markov decision process (CC-POMDP).