Perpendicular Scenario Collision Avoidance With Quadratic Bézier Curve Trajectory Planning

Congested airspace conflict resolution during terminal operations can be fatal if air traffic controllers and pilots are not well-coordinated. Aircraft that receive takeoff or landing clearance at inappropriate times, whether at vertiports or traditional airports, risk colliding with descending traffic before pilots can react. In a high-density airspace, coordination between air traffic controllers and aircraft (crewed or uncrewed) becomes significantly more challenging than in current commercial operations, rendering traditional conflict resolution methods potentially infeasible. The complexity further increases at vertiports, where aircraft can arrive and depart from any direction. Relying solely on air traffic controllers to relay collision avoidance information in such environments may not be practical. The presented work investigated a generic method of automated collision avoidance during terminal operations, specifically in scenarios where one aircraft cannot see the other and vertical maneuvers are not feasible, due to already occurring altitude changes. To mitigate potential collisions a maneuver strategy combining time-optimal Bézier curves and Dubins paths, optimized to minimize heading deviation while ensuring interception avoidance, is discussed. Experiments showed that collisions can be avoided when the trajectory planning method is used