NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Optimized eVTOL Aircraft Operations – An Answer Set Programming Based Approach Anh-Duong Nguyen, Loc Pham, Nathan Lindsay, Liang Sun, Son Tran By Dr. Pankaj Dhussa

1. Optimized eVTOL Aircraft Operations – An Answer Set Programming
Based Approach
Anh-Duong Nguyen, Loc Pham, Nathan Lindsay, Liang Sun, Son Tran
Challenge
- Net-zero emission by 2050 calls for a revolutionary
ecosystem for sustainable aviation.
- Zero-emission aircraft, e.g., electric Vertical Take-Off
and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft are emerging for
Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).
- An eVTOL scheduling problem is concerned with
identifying the routes for available eVTOLs to service a
set of trip request
- Optimal scheduling is computational hard due tothe
exponential number of potential solutions
AAM Mission
Problem Formulation
Expected Impacts
- The energy demand of eVTOLs operations can be
managed by modeling, forecasting, and optimization
methods to identify the ideal build-out of infrastructure
- Address the demands of mobility and energy as a
whole to provide safe and efficient operations of
eVTOLs
- Online scheduling/planning optimizer provides a
specific flight route and timetable for eVTOLs
operations.
Participants
• New Mexico State University, Department of Computer Science:
Anh-Duong Nguyen, Loc Pham, Dr. Son Tran
• New Mexico State University, Department of Mechanical and
Aerospace Engineering: Dr. Nathan Lindsay, Dr. Liang Sun
Solution
Planning with Answer Set Programming:
• Provide a potential novel way to deal with the
combinatorial explosion of choices
• Allows the possibility of using domain knowledge
• Provides methods for dealing with preferences and
constraints
• Has been applied to solving multi-agent planning problems
(e.g., crew scheduling for Swiss railroad, multi-agent path
finding, etc.)
Goal
- Investigate the use of answer set programming in optimized
eVTOL aircraft operations
- Integrate with other tasks to assist optimized eVTOLs
aircraft operations: synergy with energy models, facilitate
charging demand and capability with electric grid facility
Approach
BlueSky Simulation
Next Steps
- In our next step, we focus on the comparison between our
approach and others
- Integrate energy consumption model into our system.
- Currently, the solution is one time-step planning, a solution
with multi-steps planning will be considered in the future.
Problem P Program p(P)
Solution of P Answer sets of p(P)
1-to-1
somehow we get to
v declarativeness
v non-monotonic
v expressiveness (∑!
"
or ∏!
"
problems)
v modular development
v High-level problem
v Given
v Vertiports 1, …, n
v Order of the form (x,y) at a vertiport a
– x persons request to vertiport y from
a
v Availability of drones in vertiports
v Operation cost for each segment
v Price per person per each segment
v Scheduling of drones for fulfillment of
requests
1
2
3
4
order(10, 3)
5
order(4, 5)
order(20, 1)
Considerations:
v Capacity of vertiports
v Drone’s models (range, power consumption & charge, capacity)
v Arrivals of orders following a model; orders with priority/deadlines
v Online scheduling