A case for mean field games in airspace congestion forecasting

The NextGen and SESAR concepts of operations envision an airspace with increased flexibility and autonomy. New concerns are raised as more autonomy associated with varying aircraft equipage and ATC service levels may lead to unpredictable behavior in the system. This research showcases the potential of mean field games in understanding emerging patterns under future concepts of the airspace. Perspectives from ongoing research are given and the problem of congestion forecasting is formulated in a manner suitable for numerical resolution. A simple example is presented.