Probabilistic Simulation of Aircraft Descent via a Physics-Informed Machine Learning Approach

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hodgkin, Amy, Pepper, Nick, Thomas, Marc
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912635380826112
author Hodgkin, Amy
Pepper, Nick
Thomas, Marc
author_facet Hodgkin, Amy
Pepper, Nick
Thomas, Marc
contents This paper presents a method for generating probabilistic descent trajectories in simulations of real-world airspace. A dataset of 116,066 trajectories harvested from Mode S radar returns in UK airspace was used to train and test the model. Thirteen aircraft types with varying performance characteristics were investigated. It was found that the error in the mean prediction of time to reach the bottom of descent for the proposed method was less than that of the the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) model by a factor of 10. Furthermore, the method was capable of generating a range of trajectories that were similar to the held out test dataset when analysed in distribution. The proposed method is hybrid, with aircraft drag and calibrated airspeed functions generated probabilistically to parameterise the BADA equations, ensuring the physical plausibility of generated trajectories.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_02529
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Probabilistic Simulation of Aircraft Descent via a Physics-Informed Machine Learning Approach
Hodgkin, Amy
Pepper, Nick
Thomas, Marc
Systems and Control
This paper presents a method for generating probabilistic descent trajectories in simulations of real-world airspace. A dataset of 116,066 trajectories harvested from Mode S radar returns in UK airspace was used to train and test the model. Thirteen aircraft types with varying performance characteristics were investigated. It was found that the error in the mean prediction of time to reach the bottom of descent for the proposed method was less than that of the the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) model by a factor of 10. Furthermore, the method was capable of generating a range of trajectories that were similar to the held out test dataset when analysed in distribution. The proposed method is hybrid, with aircraft drag and calibrated airspeed functions generated probabilistically to parameterise the BADA equations, ensuring the physical plausibility of generated trajectories.
title Probabilistic Simulation of Aircraft Descent via a Physics-Informed Machine Learning Approach
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.02529