Using evolutionary algorithms for the scheduling of aircrew on airborne early warning and control system

3Citations
Citations of this article
12Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

Equipped with an advanced radar and other electronic systems mounted on its body, Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) enables the airspace to be monitored from medium to long distances and facilitates effective control of friendly aircraft. To operate the complex equipment and fulfill its critical functions, AWACS has a specialised flight and mission crew, all of whom are extensively trained in their respective roles. For mission accomplishment and effective use of resources, tasks should be scheduled, and individuals should be assigned to missions appropriately. In this paper, we implemented evolutionary algorithms for scheduling aircrew on AWACS and propose a novel approach using Genetic Algorithms (GA) with a special encoding strategy and modified genetic operations tailored to the problem. The objective is to assign aircrew to various AWACS tasks such as flights, simulator sessions, ground training classes and other squadron duties while aiming to maximise combat readiness and minimise operational costs. The presented approach is applied to several test instances consisting notional weekly schedules of Turkish Boeing 737 AEW&C Peace Eagle AWACS Base, generated similar to real-world examples. To test the algorithm and evaluate solution performance, experiments have been conducted on a novel scheduling software called AWACS Crew Scheduling (ACS), developed as a test bed. Computational results reveal that presented GA approach proves to be quite successful in solving the AWACS Crew Scheduling Problem and exhibits superior performance when compared to manual methods.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Ünal, H. T., & Başçiftçi, F. (2020). Using evolutionary algorithms for the scheduling of aircrew on airborne early warning and control system. Defence Science Journal, 70(3), 240–248. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.70.15055

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free