On the aircraft conflict resolution problem: A VNS approach in a multiobjective framework

Abstract The aircraft conflict resolution problem needs to provide response to such situation in which two or more aircraft violate the safety distances that must be kept during the flight. Then, given the aircraft trajectories, the aim consists of finding a new configuration such that every conflict situation must be avoided. To deal with conflict avoidance an aircraft may change velocity, heading angle and altitude level. Due to nonlinearities involved in the exact model and the need of an almost real-time response, a Variable Neighborhood Search approach is presented within the multiobjective environment.