Case study: efficient algorithms for air traffic management decision support tools

With increasing numbers of air traffic, and new kinds of air traffic emerging, new strategies are being developed in air traffic management to guarantee the safety of air traffic. Decision support tools in operation today barely extend beyond safety net features providing last-minute alerts for evasive actions. Tools with a greater time horizon to facilitate timely and gentle corrective action are lacking. Efficient algorithms to identify conflicts between aircraft, and to probe conflict-free clearances are a computational prerequisite for advanced decision support tools for air traffic controllers. We developed a method which delivers operationally useful conflict information within less than 20 ms.