Nonlinear mixed integer programming for aircraft collision avoidance in free flight

This paper addresses the problem of conflict avoidance in Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems. Aircraft are assumed to travel in a shared airspace and collaborate for solving the conflicts by sharing information. Aircraft can not get closer to each other than a given safety distance and each aircraft´s goal is to reach its final destination in minimum time, while avoiding all potential conflicts. We propose a combination of the velocity control (VC) and heading angle control (HAC) methods that produces a more realistic but also more complex method. The new problem is a mixed-integer programming one and we solve it using standard optimization software.