Air Traffic Control
D L PADEN · 1962
We propose five models. Each gives a metric for measuring eventual danger and a threshold such that controller intervention becomes necessary. An immediate danger metric prioritizes problems for a controller. We test the models on several different sample cases. The Close-Approach model matches most closely our intuitive understanding of the situations. We present an algorithm that models the decision process of a controller detecting and solving conflicts. The time-complexity of scanning for potential conflicts varies quadratically with the number of airplanes, though this could be reduced by clustering the airplanes by proximity. We argue that conflict resolution for a cluster of n airplanes is an NP-complete problem with worstcase complexity 2.