Optimal ATCs Work Shifts with mixed Integer Programming

• Main Authors: Guo-ChuanKe, 柯國川
• Other Authors: Ta-Chung Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/28113523856311727888

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 航空太空工程學系碩博士班 === 98 === It is common for Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) to control air traffic during the night and to experience fatigue because of long shifts, overwork and stress. It is obvious that fatigue will increase more during a night shift than during other shifts. Although fatigue is not the direct cause of aviation accidents, many accidents are fatigue-related. There have been many studies devoted to research about reducing fatigue and aviation accidents. Countries and companies regulate work hours to avoid extreme fatigue, but fatigue levels can be decreased still more by scheduling appropriate shifts, thus decreasing human error resulting from fatigue. This thesis focuses on optimal work shift scheduling to reduce air traffic controller fatigue. We decrease the fatigue peak by changing shifts. First, a mathematical model is established to fit fatigue curves and to represent fatigue levels. The objective function is to reduce the fatigue peak produced by work shifts as much as possible. Various constraints, such as holidays, manpower requirements, and company and government rules are considered. The optimization problem is solved using mixed-integer programming, in which the shift assignments are described by 0-1 variables. We take a sample ATC schedule and draw conclusions by comparing our results with the original fatigue levels.