Air traffic knowledge management policy

A new air traffic knowledge management system is vitally important for the safety and efficiency of future air travel. It can be accomplished by developing a new-generation integrated operational decision support for pilots and controllers. At present the knowledge for decision making is only available when the latter parties share it and negotiate it in real-time. A new policy is required with a new management system and an automated planning of conflict-free air space-time allocation accomplished by an agent-based architecture of a global network of integrated operational decision support systems for airports, airlines and air traffic control. This aims at acquiring and monitoring a flow of air space-time knowledge-and-data structures of conflict-free and optimised flights given the available resources, and ensuring their long-term efficiency by an agent-based planning of flight-plan alterations off-line before signs of air space-time conflicts can develop in real-time. The Agents managing parallel knowledge acquisition and reasoning processes allocate air space-time resources according to the technical capabilities of aircraft in response to flight-plan clearance requests. They ensure decision support for efficient flights and use of air space-time, and conflict-free planning for air traffic management. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.