2024/10/01 by Silva, Lucas Souza e, Ali Akgündüz, Akgunduz, Ali +2
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Advanced Aircraft Design and Technologies #Air Traffic Management and Optimization #FOS: Electrical engineering #Systems and Control (eess.SY) #Vehicle emissions and performance #electronic engineering #information engineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.01045
openalex publication_date 2024/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper proposes for the first time a unified optimal approach to solve a direct operating cost (DOC) minimization problem where the cost index (CI) is time-varying. More specifically, the coefficient CI is modeled as a time-varying parameter commanded by Air Traffic Control (ATC). The proposed unified approach relies on the solution of an optimal control problem both for fuel-powered and all-electric aircraft. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates how a variable CI affects the solution of the optimization problem as it presents the equations that allow the computation of optimal constant cruise airspeed and flight time in response to step changes in the CI value. The proposed methodology is validated by a simulated flight scenario. In this scenario the inputs from the ATC are received during flight and the aircraft is required to adjust its optimal airspeed, flight time, and total energy consumption to comply with the operational restrictions imposed by the ATC. The optimal values of airspeed, flight time and energy consumption are computed for both a fuel-powered and an all-electric aircraft, thus enabling applications of the proposed approach to future air mobility all-electric vehicles.