A RULE-BASED REACTIVE MODEL FOR THE SIMULATION OF AIRCRAFT ON AIRPORTGATES

Apron control, which is the control of aircraft to and from airport ga tes, is strongly characterised by its dynamic, ever changing nature. S imulation can be used as a powerful tool to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of the proposal in an apron control activity and can potentially be a valuable tool to support resolving time and resou rce conflicts in apron control. This paper proposes a rule-based react ive model for the simulation of aircraft on airport gates. It attempts to bring together object-oriented simulations and knowledge-based sys tems to produce a new kind of model in which knowledge-based technolog ies can be more deeply structured within a simulator and the simulatio n can be entirely embedded in a knowledge-based system. Validation by experiment shows that the proposed model is workable. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science B.V.