Minimum-fuel, three-dimensional flight paths for jet transports

Neuman, F.; Kreindler, E.

doi:10.2514/3.20035

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The usage of analytical optimal control techniques to optimize fuel savings started several decades ago (see [149,150] and references therein for some early works on vertical profile and speed optimization and [151] on three-dimensional trajectories). More recently, the work in [152] used Green's theorem to obtain the solution of the constant altitude cruise problem; indirect methods have also been employed to obtain the minimum fuel cruise with a fixed time of arrival [94].…”

Section: Deterministic Flight Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust aircraft trajectory planning under uncertain convective environments with optimal control and rapidly developing thunderstorms

González-Arribas

Soler

Sanjurjo-Rivo

et al. 2019

Aerospace Science and Technology

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The Air Traffic Management (ATM) system in the busiest airspaces in the world is currently being overhauled to deal with multiple capacity, socioeconomic, and environmental challenges. One major pillar of this process is the shift towards a concept of operations centered on aircraft trajectories (called Trajectory-Based Operations or TBO in Europe) instead of rigid airspace structures. However, its successful implementation (and, thus, the realization of the associated improvements in ATM performance) rests on appropriate understanding and management of uncertainty. Due to its complex socio-technical structure, the design and operations of the ATM system are heavily impacted by uncertainty, proceeding from multiple sources and propagating through the interconnections between its subsystems.One major source of ATM uncertainty is weather. Due to its nonlinear and chaotic nature, a number of meteorological phenomena of interest cannot be forecasted with complete accuracy at arbitrary lead times, which leads to uncertainty or disruption in individual air and ground operations that propagates to all ATM processes. Therefore, in order to achieve the goals of SESAR and similar programs, it is necessary to deal with meteorological uncertainty at multiple scales, from the trajectory prediction and planning processes to flow and traffic management operations. This thesis addresses the problem of single-aircraft flight planning considering two important sources of meteorological uncertainty: wind prediction error and convective activity. As the actual wind field deviates from its forecast, the actual trajectory will diverge in time from the planned trajectory, generating uncertainty in arrival times, sector entry and exit times, and fuel burn. Convective activity also impacts trajectory predictability, as it leads pilots to deviate from their planned route, creating challenging situations for controllers. In this work, we aim to develop algorithms and methods for aircraft trajectory optimization that are able to integrate information about the uncertainty in these meteorological phenomena into the flight planning process at both pre-tactical (before departure) and tactical horizons (while the aircraft is airborne), in order to generate more efficient and predictable trajectories.To that end, we frame flight planning as an optimal control problem, modeling the motion of the aircraft with a point-mass model and the BADA performance model. Optimal control methods represent a flexible and general approach that has a long history of success in the aerospace field. As a numerical scheme, we use direct methods, which can deal with nonlinear systems of moderate and high-dimensional state spaces in a computationally manageable way. Nevertheless, while this framework is well-developed in the context of deterministic problems, the techniques for the solution of practical ix x Abstract optimal control problems under uncertainty are not as mature, and the methods proposed in the literature are not applicable to the flight planning probl...

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Section: Deterministic Flight Planningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust aircraft trajectory planning under uncertain convective environments with optimal control and rapidly developing thunderstorms

González-Arribas

Soler

Sanjurjo-Rivo

et al. 2019

Aerospace Science and Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The aircraft flight path is optimized keeping full thrust, which is, of course, desirable for fuel-efficient climb, but the maximum value of the flight path was limited to 5° which makes the climb shallow resulting in more time to climb to desired altitude, which led the aircraft to burn more fuel. 8 The work proposed in Ref. 8 is best suitable for small angle climb but not for a steep climb.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aircraft trajectory generation and control for minimum fuel and time efficient climb

Salahudden

Joshi

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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This paper presents a novel approach for generating the best possible climb trajectory that ensures minimum fuel and time efficient climb. The problem is first formulated using standard steady climb equations, which generate a unique combination of flight velocity and flight path angle at each altitude. A possible scenario, such as air density, mass, available power, and required powered variation with altitude, is taken into account when defining the problem. Thereafter, sliding-mode-based trajectory tracking control is formulated with its design procedures, system stability with applied control inputs, finite-time convergence analysis, and complete architecture. A Hansa-3 research aircraft is considered as an example model to demonstrate the work. The findings of generated trajectory are then produced and discussed. In order to follow the design trajectory and achieve the same, the sliding-mode-based control command is supplied. The novelty of the present work lies in proposed strategy of trajectory generation, wherein the aircraft path and velocity are found out to make the fuel and time efficient climb possible. Subsequently, robust control law is developed which shows the applicability of the proposed work on autopilot. The results show that the proposed controller not only controls the aircraft but is also able to follow the design trajectory with minimal errors. To further explore the impact of aircraft mass on climb performance, repeated set simulation is carried out. The outcome is compared with conventional climb, which promises its practical implementation since the proposed solution is simple and compatible to integrate with the existing aircraft autopilot.

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“…Besides, the BVPs that arise for many practical TOPs in indirect methods are quite difficult to solve, because of the complex dynamics and constraints structure of the problem. In the early 1980s, several studies were done to solve aircraft TOPs by applying the PMP to minimize fuel consumption [9][10][11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Modified Dynamic Programming Approach for 4D Minimum Fuel and Emissions Trajectory Optimization

2021

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4D flight trajectory optimization is an essential component to improve flight efficiency and to enhance air traffic capacity. this technique not only helps to reduce the operational costs, but also helps to reduce the environmental impact caused by the airliners. This study considers Dynamic Programming (DP), a well-established numerical method ideally suited to solve 4D flight Trajectory Optimization Problems (TOPs). However, it bears some shortcomings that prevent the use of DP in many practical real-time implementations. This paper proposes a Modified Dynamic Programming (MDP) approach that reduces the computational effort and overcomes the drawbacks of the traditional DP. In this paper, two numerical examples with fixed arrival times are presented, where the proposed MDP approach is successfully implemented to generate optimal trajectories that minimize aircraft fuel consumption and emissions. Then the obtained optimal trajectories are compared with the corresponding reference commercial flight trajectory for the same route in order to quantify the potential benefit of reduction of aircraft fuel consumption and emissions.

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Minimum-fuel, three-dimensional flight paths for jet transports

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

Robust aircraft trajectory planning under uncertain convective environments with optimal control and rapidly developing thunderstorms

Robust aircraft trajectory planning under uncertain convective environments with optimal control and rapidly developing thunderstorms

Aircraft trajectory generation and control for minimum fuel and time efficient climb

A Modified Dynamic Programming Approach for 4D Minimum Fuel and Emissions Trajectory Optimization

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