Scheduling Aircraft Using Constraint Satisfaction

In this paper, an airport departure scheduling tool for aircraft is presented based on constraint satisfaction techniques. Airports are getting more and more congested with the available runway configuration as one of the most constraining factors. A possibility to alleviate this congestion is to assist controllers in the planning and scheduling process of aircraft. The prototype presented here is aimed to offer such assistance in the establishment of an optimal departure schedule and the planning of initial climb phases for departing aircraft. This goal is accomplished by modelling the scheduling problem as a constraint satisfaction problem, using ILOG Solver and Scheduler as an implementation environment.