Toward a More Realistic, Cost-Effective, and Greener Ground Movement Through Active Routing: A Multiobjective Shortest Path Approach

This paper draws upon earlier work, which developed a multiobjective speed profile generation framework for unimpeded taxiing aircraft. Here, we deal with how to seamlessly integrate such efficient speed profiles into a holistic decision-making framework. The availability of a set of nondominated unimpeded speed profiles for each taxiway segment, with respect to conflicting objectives, has the potential to significantly impact upon airport ground movement research. More specifically, the routing and scheduling function that was previously based on distance, emphasizing time efficiency, could now be based on richer information embedded within speed profiles, such as the taxiing times along segments, the corresponding fuel consumption, and the associated economic implications. The economic implications are exploited over a day of operation, to take into account cost differences between busier and quieter times of the airport. Therefore, a more cost-effective and tailored decision can be made, respecting the environmental impact. Preliminary results based on the proposed approach show a 9%-50% reduction in time and fuel respectively for two international airports: Zurich and Manchester. The study also suggests that, if the average power setting during the acceleration phase could be lifted from the level suggested by the International Civil Aviation Organization, ground operations may simultaneously improve both time and fuel efficiency. The work described in this paper aims to open up the possibility to move away from the conventional distance-based routing and scheduling to a more comprehensive framework, capturing the multifaceted needs of all stakeholders involved in airport ground operations.