---
title: "Planning in the World of the Air Traffic Controller"
authors:
  - "Robert B. Wesson"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1977/107"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1977/0107.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1977
pages: "473-478"
track: "Problem-solving and Search"
keywords:
---

# Planning in the World of the Air Traffic Controller

Robert B. Wesson

*Proceedings of the Fifth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 473-478.

## Abstract

An enroute air traffic control (ATC) simulation has provided the basis for research into the marriage of discrete simulation and artificial intelligence techniques. A program which simulates, using real world data, the movement of aircraft in an ATC environment forms a robot's world model. Using a production system to respond to events in the simulated world, the robot is able to look ahead and form a plan of instructions which guarantees safe, expedient aircraft transit. A distinction is made between the real world, where pilots can make mistakes, change their minds, etc., and an idealized plan-ahead world which the robot uses; the over-all simulation alternates between updating the real world and planning in the idealized one to investigate the robot's ability to plan in the face of uncertainty.