Patent Document ID: 9087452
Application ID: 13902632
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer implemented method of managing airspace through which a plurality of aircraft are flying, comprising: obtaining user-preferred aircraft intent data of the aircraft that describe unambiguously the user-preferred trajectories of the aircraft through the airspace; obtaining time constraints for at least some of the aircraft, each time constraint comprising a user-preferred time of arrival at a common location; calculating the corresponding user-preferred trajectories from the user-preferred aircraft intent data; calling an initial conflict detection procedure comprising comparing the calculated user-preferred trajectories to identify a plurality of conflicts between user-preferred trajectories, and identifying a plurality of conflicted aircraft predicted to fly the conflicting trajectories; grouping the plurality of conflicts into a conflict dependent network; selecting resolution actions for a set of the plurality of conflicted aircraft within a given conflict dependent network from a set of joint candidate resolution strategies derived from a set of predefined joint candidate resolution patterns; gathering all joint candidate resolution patterns for each conflict dependent network; selecting a most equitable joint candidate resolution pattern for each conflict dependent network; transmitting to the plurality of conflicted aircraft the most equitable joint candidate resolution pattern; and ordering the plurality of conflicted aircraft to follow the most equitable joint candidate resolution pattern.