On Modeling A Dynamic Hybrid System with Constraints: Computing Aircraft Landing Trajectories

We study the problem of computing trajectories of a set of aircraft in their final descent, right before landing. Trajectories must be compatible with aircraft dynamics while keeping distance between aircraft large enough. Our objective is to determine the order in which aircraft land as well as their exact trajectories in order to minimize the maximal landing time. We study a highly simplified version of this hybrid problem where time and space are discretized. A constraint based model relying on several specific global constraints is introduced. Computational experiments are reported.