Conflict Management in Air Traffic Control Using Complexity Map

This study proposes a new method of conflict management in air traffic control that ensures a safe distance between aircraft while minimizing the workload for sector controllers. When an aircraft approaches a sector, the proper entry point is determined based on the concept of a complexity map. Using detailed information on how the traffic responds to an entering aircraft provided by the complexity map, its entry point can be modified to minimize the conflicts inside the sector. To compute the complexity map efficiently, the reachable entry points on the sector boundary are defined considering the maneuverability of the entering aircraft. Next, the variance quadtree algorithm is utilized to construct a grid of the complexity map in a coarse-to-fine manner. The performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by numerical simulations.