Commercial airliners now have more freedom in choosing their routes and more responsibility for detecting and avoiding conflicts. However, these free flight concepts must include new rules for assigning right of way in potential conflict situations. This article reports on a study undertaken to evaluate the effect of prospective rules. The authors use traditional game theoretic analysis to derive the behavior of rational agents, then computer simulations are used to predict the behavior of boundedly rational reinforcement learners. After determining from the results that seemingly reasonable, straightforward right-of-way rules might lead to undesirable outcomes, the authors propose an auction-based solution. The authors conclude that although such auctions seem novel in the context of air traffic control, they are consistent with recent FAA-sponsored attempts to improve the efficiency of airspace operations through collaborative decision making, fostered by increased information sharing.
Abstract