A study of aircraft taxi performance for enhancing airport surface traffic control

In view of the ever-increasing air traffic, much attention in air traffic management research has been given to improving arrival and departure efficiency. As air traffic begins and ends at the airport, the issues of taxi delays and ground incursions are becoming more evident. The paper considers the surface-traffic problem at major airports and envisions a collaborative traffic and aircraft control environment where a surface traffic automation system will help coordinate surface traffic movements. Specifically, the paper studies the performance potential of high-precision taxi toward the realization of such an environment. A state-of-the-art nonlinear control system based on feedback linearization is designed for a detailed B-737 aircraft taxi model. The simulation model with the nonlinear control system is evaluated extensively in a scenario representing the demanding situation of an arrival aircraft crossing an adjacent active runway immediately following its own landing. The evaluation establishes the potential of an automated system to achieve high-precision taxi control, including the ability to comply with taxi clearances with tight time margins. Such a high-precision taxi capability reduces the time margin required for clearing taxiing aircraft to cross active runways, thus increasing the opportunity for issuing such clearances, which in turn reduces the need for aircraft to hold short at the runways to wait for the opportunity for crossing. The results from the analyses provide insight into future aircraft operational capabilities toward the design of the envisioned surface traffic automation system. Moreover, the nonlinear control design serves as a preliminary study for future auto-taxi functional development.