A novel dynamic en-route and slot allocation method based on receding horizon control

As an important part in civil air traffic control, en-route management plays a commander role in the whole control process. En-route and slot allocation, as the necessary means for en-route management, is the factor to break through the operation efficiency. Traditional en-route and slot al-location methods mainly focus on scheduled allocation and plan-based strategies, which cannot afford the dynamic and varied airspace in future. The methodology used in this study: To minimize delay costs in the current time horizon, dynamic en-route, and slot allocation, this paper proposes a dynamic en-route and slot allocation method based on receding horizon control, which can create the optimal allocation strategy in the current time horizon. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm reduces flight delay costs at least 5.85% over the traditional first come first served strategy when increasing or decreasing flights randomly. The proposed method can effectively deal with the in the en-route and slot allocation problem in the dynamic airspace environment, which would provide more technical means in other field in transportation, such as urban three-dimensional transportation.