Integrated Gate and Bus Assignment at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

At an airport a series of assignment problems need to be solved before aircraft can arrive and depart and passengers can embark and disembark. A lot of different parties are involved with this, each of which having to plan their own schedule. Two of the assignment problems that the \u27Regie\u27 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS) is responsible for, are the gate assignment problem (i.e. where to place which aircraft) and the bus assignment problem (i.e. which bus will transport which passengers to or from the aircraft). Currently these two problems are solved in a sequential fashion, the output of the gate assignment problem is used as input for the bus assignment problem. We look at integrating these two sequential problems into one larger problem that considers both problems at the same time. This creates the possibility of using information regarding the bus assignment problem while solving the gate assignment problem. We developed a column generation algorithm for this problem and have implemented a prototype. To make the algorithm efficient we used a special technique called stabilized column generation and also column deletion. Computational experiments with real-life data from AAS indicate that our algorithm is able to compute a planning for one day at Schiphol in a reasonable time

Integrated Gate and Bus Assignment at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

Abstract. At an airport a series of assignment problems need to be solved before aircraft can arrive and depart and passengers can embark and disembark. A lot of different parties are involved with this, each of which having to plan their own schedule. Two of the assignment problems that the ’Regie ’ at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS) is responsible for, are the gate assignment problem (i.e. where to place which aircraft) and the bus assignment problem (i.e. which bus will transport which passen-gers to or from the aircraft). Currently these two problems are solved in a sequential fashion, the output of the gate assignment problem is used as input for the bus assignment problem. We look at integrating these two sequential problems into one larger problem that considers both prob-lems at the same time. This creates the possibility of using information regarding the bus assignment problem while solving the gate assignment problem. We developed a column generation algorithm for this problem and have implemented a prototype. To make the algorithm efficient we used a special technique called stabilized column generation and also col-umn deletion. Computational experiments with real-life data from AAS indicate that our algorithm is able to compute a planning for one day at Schiphol in a reasonable time

An investigation of operational management solutions and challenges for electric taxiing of aircraft

Taxiing aircraft using electric towing vehicles (ETVs) is expected to significantly contribute to the objective of climate-neutral aviation by 2050. This study reviews existing work on operational aspects of electric towing of aircraft, and discusses management solutions. We first discuss the varying electric taxi systems currently under development, and their implementation progress at airports. We outline the current specifications of ETVs and the procedures needed to perform electric taxiing movements. We next discuss the management needs for implementing ETVs at an airport, by reviewing existing mathematical models for ETV fleet management: dedicated vehicle routing models, ETV to flight assignment models, fleet sizing models and battery charging optimisation models. Last, we identify remaining research challenges. For instance, a main challenge is to increase the robustness of ETV routing and towing scheduling against disruptions due to flight delay. This paper summarizes the main research directions needed to support large-scale ETV implementation in the next few decades

Planning and reconfigurable control of a fleet of unmanned vehicles for taxi operations in airport environment

The optimization of airport operations has gained increasing interest by the aeronautical community, due to the substantial growth in the number of airport movements (landings and take-offs) experienced in the past decades all over the world. Forecasts have confirmed this trend also for the next decades. The result of the expansion of air traffic is an increasing congestion of airports, especially in taxiways and runways, leading to additional amount of fuel burnt by airplanes during taxi operations, causing additional pollution and costs for airlines. In order to reduce the impact of taxi operations, different solutions have been proposed in literature; the solution which this dissertation refers to uses autonomous electric vehicles to tow airplanes between parking lots and runways. Although several analyses have been proposed in literature, showing the feasibility and the effectiveness of this approach in reducing the environmental impact, at the beginning of the doctoral activity no solutions were proposed, on how to manage the fleet of unmanned vehicles inside the airport environment. Therefore, the research activity has focused on the development of algorithms able to provide pushback tractor (also referred as tugs) autopilots with conflict-free schedules. The main objective of the optimization algorithms is to minimize the tug energy consumption, while performing just-in-time runway operations: departing airplanes are delivered only when they can take-off and the taxi-in phase starts as soon as the aircraft clears the runway and connects to the tractor. Two models, one based on continuous time and one on discrete time evolution, were developed to simulate the taxi phases within the optimization scheme. A piecewise-linear model has also been proposed to evaluate the energy consumed by the tugs during the assigned missions. Furthermore, three optimization algorithms were developed: two hybrid versions of the particle swarm optimization and a tree search heuristic. The following functional requirements for the management algorithm were defined: the optimization model must be easily adapted to different airports with different layout (reconfigurability); the generated schedule must always be conflict-free; and the computational time required to process a time horizon of 1h must be less than 15min. In order to improve its performance, the particle swarm optimization was hybridized with a hill-climb meta-heuristic; a second hybridization was performed by means of the random variable search, an algorithm of the family of the variable neighborhood search. The neighborhood size for the random variable search was considered varying with inverse proportionality to the distance between the actual considered solution and the optimal one found so far. Finally, a tree search heuristic was developed to find the runway sequence, among all the possible sequences of take-offs and landings for a given flight schedule, which can be realized with a series of taxi trajectories that require minimum energy consumption. Given the taxi schedule generated by the aforementioned optimization algorithms a tug dispatch algorithm, assigns a vehicle to each mission. The three optimization schemes and the two mathematical models were tested on several test cases among three airports: the Turin-Caselle airport, the Milan-Malpensa airport, and the Amsterdam airport Schiphol. The cost required to perform the generated schedules using the autonomous tugs was compared to the cost required to perform the taxi using the aircraft engines. The proposed approach resulted always more convenient than the classical one

\u3ci\u3eThe Conference Proceedings of the 2001 Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) of the WCTR Society, Volume 2\u3c/i\u3e

UNOAI Report 01-7https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1147/thumbnail.jp

OverHolland 4:

In the fourth edition of OverHolland, the research into the architectonic makeup of the capital is extended to infrastructural projects. Just like other buildings, infrastructural works also manifest themselves expressly in the city as artefacts with an unmistakable physical and material presence. Bridges, dikes, overpasses and tunnels for cars, trains or subways contribute to the built-up identity of the city just as much as public buildings and residential areas. The projects analysed in this edition of OverHolland illustrate this view. The main role of the design in similar urban artefacts is discussed by François Claessens and Endry van Velzen under the denominator ‘the urban project’. Instead of a design and urban planning approach, which often remains abstract and vague due to its large scale, the authors make a case for an approach to urban transformation on the medium scale that works with concrete proposals open to discussion. Next, three articles hold the concrete architectonic form of a few large infrastructural projects in Amsterdam up to the light. Ed Taverne discusses the early 20th century breakthrough of the Raadhuisstraat against the background of the attention for the city’s image in the painting as well as the architecture of that era. Then, the attention is focussed on two current projects, which, given their size and signifi cance, exceed the scale of the city by far. Roberto Cavallo analyses the current transformation of Amsterdam Central Station, which he places in a series of interventions since its original construction at the end of the 19th century. Filip Geerts lines up the developments of the everexpanding structure of Schiphol. This book also features architectonic interventions in obsolete industrial buildings. By analysing a few design proposals for the Tate Modern in London, Tamara Rogic´ attempts to formulate various architectonic approaches for dealing with existing artefacts. Finally, under the heading Polemen, Henk Engel gives his critical view of the recent Team X research at the Delft University of Technology, with an adaptation of the lecture delivered at the Keeping the language of modern architecture alive congress, held in Delft in January 2006

Breakout local search for the multi-objective gate allocation problem

This work was partially supported by the research project EP/H004424/2

3D-in-2D Displays for ATC.

This paper reports on the efforts and accomplishments of the 3D-in-2D Displays for ATC project at the end of Year 1. We describe the invention of 10 novel 3D/2D visualisations that were mostly implemented in the Augmented Reality ARToolkit. These prototype implementations of visualisation and interaction elements can be viewed on the accompanying video. We have identified six candidate design concepts which we will further research and develop. These designs correspond with the early feasibility studies stage of maturity as defined by the NASA Technology Readiness Level framework. We developed the Combination Display Framework from a review of the literature, and used it for analysing display designs in terms of display technique used and how they are combined. The insights we gained from this framework then guided our inventions and the human-centered innovation process we use to iteratively invent. Our designs are based on an understanding of user work practices. We also developed a simple ATC simulator that we used for rapid experimentation and evaluation of design ideas. We expect that if this project continues, the effort in Year 2 and 3 will be focus on maturing the concepts and employment in a operational laboratory settings