Volume 26 Issue 3
Mar.  2026
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ZHAO Xin-yi, WANG Yan-tao, ZHAO Yi-fei. Autonomous avoidance decision-making and control method for eVTOL aircraft under non-cooperative differential games[J]. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 2026, 26(3): 198-214. doi: 10.19818/j.cnki.1671-1637.2026.093
Citation: ZHAO Xin-yi, WANG Yan-tao, ZHAO Yi-fei. Autonomous avoidance decision-making and control method for eVTOL aircraft under non-cooperative differential games[J]. Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 2026, 26(3): 198-214. doi: 10.19818/j.cnki.1671-1637.2026.093
shu

Autonomous avoidance decision-making and control method for eVTOL aircraft under non-cooperative differential games

doi: 10.19818/j.cnki.1671-1637.2026.093
  • 1.

    Electronic Information School, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, Hubei, China

  • 2.

    Institute of Science and Technology Innovation, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China

  • 3.

    College of Air Traffic Management, Civil Aviation University of China, Tianjin 300300, China

Funds:

National Key R&D Program of China 2022YFC3002502

National Natural Science Foundation of China 52572390

More Information
  • Corresponding author: ZHAO Yi-fei, professor, PhD, E-mail: yfzhao@cauc.edu.cn
  • Received Date: 2025-09-01
  • Accepted Date: 2025-11-27
  • Rev Recd Date: 2025-11-19
  • Publish Date: 2026-03-28
    Abstract
  • To ensure the safe autonomous operation of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in urban airspace, an autonomous avoidance decision-making and control method for eVTOL aircrafts under non-cooperative games was proposed for non-cooperative aircraft intrusion scenarios. Optimal control models were constructed respectively for aircraft with different flight goals and avoidance intentions, and continuous and hybrid action spaces were adopted to express control inputs. A multi-aircraft decision-making model based on non-cooperative differential game theory was established to characterize the avoidance or priority-taking behaviors of aircraft in conflict scenarios. An event-triggered mechanism was integrated with a model predictive control framework, and a rolling optimization process of trajectory prediction, conflict detection, optimization calculation, and control execution was adopted to solve the single-step optimal control command for aircraft in real time. An iterative best response algorithm was adopted to progressively approach the Nash equilibrium solution of the non-cooperative differential game to improve online computational efficiency. Based on the proposed models and algorithms, autonomous avoidance simulation experiments of eVTOL aircraft were conducted under head-on, same-direction, and crossing conflict scenarios. Simulation results show that when the intruding aircraft is predicted to have no avoidance intention, the avoidance effect is better. The composite maneuver strategy of "speed adjustment+direction adjustment+altitude adjustment" improves avoidance safety by 32%, increases avoidance efficiency by 53%, and reduces maximum deviation distance by 88%. The average computation time per step of the game optimization algorithm based on iterative best response is less than 0.3 s, and the response speed is fast. The proposed autonomous avoidance decision-making and control method enables eVTOL aircraft to rapidly generate optimal control strategies when facing non-cooperative target conflicts, thereby achieving safe and efficient autonomous avoidance.

     

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