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MIT researcher develops new algorithms to manage growing airport congestion

TIN news:   A researcher at the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed new algorithms to reduce congestion across US airports over the next 25 years.
According to aeronautics and astronautics associate professor Hamsa Balakrishnan, passenger numbers at US airports are expected to increase to more than 900 million passengers annually, which would add new aircraft to an already congested airspace.
Balakrishnan said: “The system is large, and there’s a lot of connectivity. How do you move along today’s system to be more efficient, and at the same time think about technologies that are lightweight, that you can implement in the tower now?”
"We don’t necessarily want [controllers] to spend the bandwidth on processing 40 pieces of information."
The professor is collaborating with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and major airports in the country to modernise air traffic control (ATC) tools that can be easily integrated into existing infrastructure.
The tools are designed to predict and prevent air traffic delays, both at individual airports and across the entire US aviation system.
Balakrishnan added: “We don’t necessarily want [controllers] to spend the bandwidth on processing 40 pieces of information.
“Instead, we can tell them the three top choices, and the difference between those choices would be something only a human could tell.”
Balakrishnan claims that runways can operate faster and more smoothly, with less idling time, if air traffic controllers can hold aeroplanes at the gate for a few extra minutes.
The researcher's new queuing model will be able to predict the wait time for each aircraft before taking off under specific weather conditions, runway traffic, and arriving schedules.
She has also calculated the optimal times when aeroplanes should push back from the gate

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