A Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization Model and a Column-Row Generation Method for Integrated Aircraft Maintenance-Routing and Crew Rostering

Motivated by a critical issue of airline planning process,this paper addresses a new two-stage scenario-based robust optimization in operational airline planning to cope with uncertainty and possible flight disruptions.Following the route network scheme and generated flight timetables,aircraft maintenance routing and crew scheduling are critical factors in airline planning and operations cost management.This study considers the simultaneous assignment of aircraft fleet and crew to the scheduled flight while satisfying a set of operational constraints,rules,and regulations.Considering multiple locations for airline maintenance and crew bases,we solve the problem of integrated Aircraft Maintenance Routing and Crew Rostering(AMRCR)to achieve the minimum airline cost.One real challenge to the efficiency of the planning results is the possible disruptions in the initial scheduled flights.Due to the fact that disruption scenarios are expressed discretely with a specified probability,and we provide adjustable decisions under disruption to deal with this disruption risk,we provide a Two-Stage Scenario-Based Robust Optimization(TSRO)model.In this model,here-and-now or first-stage variables are the initial resource assignment.Furthermore,to adapt itself to different disruption scenarios,the model considers some adjustable variables,such as the decision to cancel the flight in case of disruption,as wait-and-see or second-stage variables.Considering the complexity of integrated models,and the scenario-based decomposable structure of the TRSO model to solve it with better computational performance,we apply the column and row generation(CRG)method that iteratively considers the disruption scenarios.The numerical results confirm the applicability of the proposed TSRO model in providing the AMRCR problem with an integrated and robust solution with an acceptable level of computational tractability.To evaluate the proposed TSRO model,which solves the AMRCR problem in an integrated and robust manner,five Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)like Number of delayed/canceled flights,Average delay time,and Average profit are taken into account.As key results driven by conducting a case study,we show the proposed TSRO model has substantially improved the solutions at all indicators compared with those of the sequential/non-integrated and nominal/non-robust models.The simulated instances used to assess the performance of the proposed model and CRG method reveal that both CPLEX and the CRG method exhibit comparable and nearly optimal performance for small-scale problems.However,for large-scale instances the proposed TSRO model falls short in terms of computational efficiency.Conversely,the proposed CRG method is capable of significantly reducing computational time and the optimality gap to an acceptable level.

Human resources allocation for aircraft maintenance with predefined sequence

There are always large-scale items in the maintenances schedule of aircraft system, many of which have been fixed to be done in predefined sequences, which leads the workflow to be sys-tematically complex and makes this kind of problem quite different from all sorts of existing job-selection modes. On the other hand, the human resources are always limited and men have different working capabilities on different items, which make the allocation operation of human resources be much roomy. However, the final total time span of maintenance is often required to be as short as possible in many practices, in order to suffer only the lowest cost of loss while the system is stopping. A new model for op-timizing the allocation if aircraft maintenance human resources with the constraint of predefined sequence is presented. The ge-netic algorithm is employed to find the optimal solution that holds the shortest total time span of maintenance. To generate the ul-timate maintenance work items and the human resource array, the sequences among all maintenance work items are considered firstly, the work item array is then generated through traversal with the constraint of maintenance sequence matrix, and the human resources are finally allocated according to the work item array with the constraint of the maintenance capability. An example is demonstrated to show that the model and algorithm behave a satisfying performance on finding the optimal solution as expected.

On the cultivation of psychological competence among aircraft maintenance major students

The strategy of a strong civil aviation country points out that China should be built into a strong civil aviation country with international competitiveness.Aircraft maintenance ensures the safety of aircraft and passengers,and plays a crucial role in the strategy of a strong civil aviation country.The arduous work situation in the aircraft maintenance industry greatly affects the psychological quality of aircraft maintenance practitioners.Aircraft maintenance students even develop a sense of fear and are unwilling to work in airlines and maintenance companies.Based on the current psychological status of aircraft maintenance students,this article proposes an implementation path to cultivate their competent psychological qualities.The cultivation of psychological competence among students majoring in aircraft maintenance needs to be carried out from multiple aspects.Through the joint efforts of family,school,and enterprise,we will ensure the mental health of students majoring in aircraft maintenance.Reduce anxiety and confusion among students majoring in aircraft maintenance through clear career planning.By simulating the work environment and content through practical courses and pre job training,we aim to improve the psychological competence of students majoring in aircraft maintenance.Exploring the cultivation path of psychological competence for aircraft maintenance students can help improve their psychological and skill levels,laying a solid foundation for their future career development.

Identifying strategic maintenance capacity for accidental damage occurrence in aircraft operations

Airline operators face accidental damages on their fleet of aircraft as part of operational practice.Individual occurrences are hard to predict;consequently,the approach towards repairing accidental damage is reactive in aircraft maintenance practice.However,by aggregating occurrence data and predicting future occurrence rates,it is possible to predict future long-term(strategic)demand for maintenance capacity.In this paper,a novel approach for integration of reliability modelling and inventory control is presented.Here,the concept of a base stock policy has been translated to the maintenance slot capacity problem to determine long-term cost-optimal capacity.Demand has been modelled using a superposed Non-homogeneous Poisson Process(NHPP).A case study has been performed on damage data from a fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft.The results prove the feasibility of adopting an integrated approach towards strategic capacity identification,using real-life data to predict future damage occurrence and associated maintenance slot requirements.

A Certifiable Framework for Health Monitoring and Management

The scope of this paper is to provide an E2 Eperspective of health monitoring and management(HMM)and structural health mornitoring(SHM)as an integrated system element of an integrated system health monitoring and management(ISHM)system.The paper will address two main topics:(1)The importance of a diagnostics and prognostic requirements specification to develop an innovative health monitoring and management system;(2)The certification of a health monitoring and management system aiming at a maintenance credit as an integral part of the maintenance strategies.The development of a maintenance program which is based on combinations of different types of strategies(preventive,condition-based maintenance(CBM)and corrective maintenance…)for different subsystems or components and structures of complex systems like an aircraft to achieve the most optimized solution in terms of availability,cost and safety/certification is a real challenge.The maintenance strategy must satisfy the technical-risk and cost feasibility of the maintenance program.

Multi-dimensional and Multi-threshold Airframe Damage Region Division Method Based on Correlation Optimization

In order to obtain the image of airframe damage region and provide the input data for aircraft intelligent maintenance,a multi-dimensional and multi-threshold airframe damage region division method based on correlation optimization is proposed.On the basis of airframe damage feature analysis,the multi-dimensional feature entropy is defined to realize the full fusion of multiple feature information of the image,and the division method is extended to multi-threshold to refine the damage division and reduce the impact of the damage adjacent region’s morphological changes on the division.Through the correlation parameter optimization algorithm,the problem of low efficiency of multi-dimensional multi-threshold division method is solved.Finally,the proposed method is compared and verified by instances of airframe damage image.The results show that compared with the traditional threshold division method,the damage region divided by the proposed method is complete and accurate,and the boundary is clear and coherent,which can effectively reduce the interference of many factors such as uneven luminance,chromaticity deviation,dirt attachment,image compression,and so on.The correlation optimization algorithm has high efficiency and stable convergence,and can meet the requirements of aircraft intelligent maintenance.