Collaborative scheduling problem pertaining to launch and recovery operations for carrier aircraft

doi:10.23919/JSEE.2026.000043

Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics ›› 2026, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (1): 287-306.doi: 10.23919/JSEE.2026.000043

• SYSTEMS ENGINEERING • Previous Articles Next Articles

Collaborative scheduling problem pertaining to launch and recovery operations for carrier aircraft

Fang GUO¹(), Wei HAN¹(), Yujie LIU¹(), Xichao SU²^,*(), Jie LIU³(), Changjiu LI¹()

¹School of Basic Science for Aviation, Naval Aviation University, Yantai 264001, China
²Aeronautical Operations College, Naval Aviation University, Yantai 264001, China
³Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing 100091, China

Received:2023-12-05 Online:2026-02-18 Published:2026-03-09
Contact: Xichao SU E-mail:guofang575856@163.com;hanwei70cnau@163.com;liuyujie6676@163.com;suxich@126.com;liuyexiaobao@163.com;jiu.haha@hrbeu.edu.cn
About author:
GUO Fang was born in 1994. He received his M.S. degree in aerospace science and technology from Naval Aviation University in Yantai, China. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Naval Aviation University. His research interests include operation scheduling for carrier aircraft, task planning, and reinforcement learning. E-mail: guofang575856@163.com

HAN Wei was born in 1970. He received his Ph.D. degree in solid mechanics from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China, in 2003. He is a professor at Naval Aviation University. His research interests include operation scheduling for carrier aircraft and flight dynamics. E-mail: hanwei70cnau@163.com

LIU Yujie was born in 1983. He received his Ph.D. degree from Naval Aviation University (NAU) in 2022. He is now a teacher with NAU. His research interests include operation scheduling of carrier aircraft and aerodynamics. E-mail: liuyujie6676@163.com

SU Xichao was born in 1989. He received his Ph.D. degree from Naval Aviation University in 2018. He is an associate professor at Naval Aviation University. His research interests include flight deck operations scheduling and intelligent computation. E-mail: suxich@126.com

LIU Jie was born in 1990. He received his Ph.D. degree from Naval Aviation University in 2018. He is a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences. His research interests include on the control of unmanned ground systems, path planning for robots, optimal control, and related fields such as the process industry control and automation. E-mail: liuyexiaobao@163.com

LI Changjiu was born in 1997. He received his M.S. degree in 2022, and he is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at Naval Aviation University. His research interests include operation scheduling of carrier aircraft and intelligent computation. E-mail: jiu.haha@hrbeu.edu.cn

Abstract

Abstract:

The proliferation of carrier aircraft and the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on aircraft carriers present new challenges to the automation of launch and recovery operations. This paper investigates a collaborative scheduling problem inherent to the operational processes of carrier aircraft, where launch and recovery tasks are conducted concurrently on the flight deck. The objective is to minimize the cumulative weighted waiting time in the air for recovering aircraft and the cumulative weighted delay time for launching aircraft. To tackle this challenge, a multiple population self-adaptive differential evolution (MPSADE) algorithm is proposed. This method features a self-adaptive parameter updating mechanism that is contingent upon population diversity, an asynchronous updating scheme, an individual migration operator, and a global crossover mechanism. Additionally, comprehensive experiments are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. Ultimately, a comparative analysis with existing operation modes confirms the enhanced efficiency of the collaborative operation mode.

Key words: carrier aircraft, collaborative scheduling problem, launch, recovery, multiple population differential evolution

Fang GUO, Wei HAN, Yujie LIU, Xichao SU, Jie LIU, Changjiu LI. Collaborative scheduling problem pertaining to launch and recovery operations for carrier aircraft[J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2026, 37(1): 287-306.

Figures/Tables 15

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

Fig 5

Fig 6

Fig 7

Fig 8

Fig 9

Fig 10

Table 1

Table 2

Fig 11

Fig 12

Table 3

References 39

1	CUI R W, HAN W, SU X C, et al A multi-objective hyper heuristic framework for integrated optimization of carrier-based aircraft flight deck operations scheduling and resource configuration. Aerospace Science and Technology, 2020, 107, 16346. doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2020.106346
2	CUI J P, WU Y, SU X C, et al. A task allocation model for a team of aircraft launching on the carrier. Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2018, 2018: 7920806.
3	LIU J, HAN W, LI J, et al Integration design of sortie scheduling for carrier aircrafts based on hybrid flexible flowshop. IEEE Systems Journal, 2020, 14 (1): 1503- 1511. doi: 10.1109/JSYST.2019.2922261
4	LIU Y J, WAN B, SU X C, et al Scheduling of landing for carrier-based aircraft based on improved artificial bee colony algorithm. Control and Decision, 2022, 37 (7): 1810- 1818.
5	WU Y, SUN L G, QU X J A sequencing model for a team of aircraft landing on the carrier. Aerospace Science and Technology, 2016, 54, 72- 87. doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2016.04.007
6	WANG X W, LI B, SU X C, et al Autonomous dispatch trajectory planning on flight deck: a search-resampling-optimization framework. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2023, 119, 105792. doi: 10.1016/j.engappai.2022.105792
7	GAO X H, WANG L, YU X Y, et al Conditional probability based multi-objective cooperative task assignment for heterogeneous UAVs. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2023, 123, 106404. doi: 10.1016/j.engappai.2023.106404
8	LIU J, HAN W, WANG X W, et al Research on cooperative trajectory planning and tracking problem for multiple carrier aircraft on the deck. IEEE Systems Journal, 2020, 14 (2): 3027- 3038. doi: 10.1109/JSYST.2019.2932783
9	SU X C, HAN W, WU Y, et al. A proactive robust scheduling method for aircraft carrier flight deck operations with stochastic durations. Complexity, 2018, 2018: 6932985.
10	WANG X W, DENG Z L, PENG H J, et al. Autonomous docking trajectory optimization for unmanned surface vehicle: a hierarchical method. Ocean Engineering 2023, 279: 114156.
11	ZHANG J, YU J, QU X J, et al. Path planning for carrier aircraft based on geometry and dijkstra’s algorithm. Proc. of the IEEE 3rd International Conference on Control Science and Systems Engineering, 2017: 115−119.
12	WU Y, QU X J Path planning for taxi of carrier aircraft launching. Science China Technological Sciences, 2013, 56 (6): 1561- 1570. doi: 10.1007/s11431-013-5222-5
13	WU Y, QU X J Obstacle avoidance and path planning for carrier aircraft launching. Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, 2015, 28 (3): 695- 703. doi: 10.1016/j.cja.2015.03.001
14	ZHANG Z, LIN S L, XIA G H, et al Collision avoidance path planning for an aircraft in scheduling process on deck. Journal of Harbin Engineering University, 2014, 35 (1): 9- 15.
15	WANG X W, LIU J, SU X C, et al A review on carrier aircraft dispatch path planning and control on deck. Chinese Journal of Aeronautics, 2020, 33 (12): 3039- 3057. doi: 10.1016/j.cja.2020.06.020
16	BERG J P V D, LIN M C , MANOCHA D. Reciprocal velocity obstacles for real-time multi-agent navigation. Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2008: 1928−1935.
17	LI Y T, WU Y , SU X C, et al. Path planning for aircraft fleet launching on the flight deck of carriers. Mathematics, 2018, 6(10): 175.
18	LIU M, SUN Z H, ZHANG X N, et al. A two-stage no-wait hybrid flow-shop model for the flight departure scheduling in a multi-airport system. Proc. of the IEEE 14th International Conference on Networking, 2017: 495−500.
19	ZHONG H, GUAN W, ZHANG W Y, et al A bi-objective integer programming model for partly-restricted flight departure scheduling. Plos One, 2018, 13 (5): e0196146. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196146
20	MONTOYA J V, RATHINAM S, WOOD Z Multiobjective departure runway scheduling using dynamic programming. IEEE Trans. on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2014, 15 (1): 399- 413. doi: 10.1109/TITS.2013.2283256
21	D’APICE C, NICOLA C D, MANZO R, et al Optimal scheduling for aircraft departures. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 2014, 5 (6): 799- 807. doi: 10.1007/s12652-014-0223-1
22	MA W M, XU B, LIU M, et al. An efficient algorithm based on sparse optimization for the aircraft departure scheduling problem. Computational and Applied Mathematics 2016, 35(2): 371−387.
23	LEE H, BALAKRISHNAN H. A study of tradeoffs in scheduling terminal-area operations. Proceedings of the IEEE, 2008, 96(12): 2081−2095.
24	ZHANG J F, ZHAO P L, ZHANG Y, et al Criteria selection and multi-objective optimization of aircraft landing problem. Journal of Air Transport Management, 2020, 82, 101734. doi: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2019.101734
25	CAO Y, RATHINAM S, SUN D F Greedy-heuristic-aided mixed-integer linear programming approach for arrival scheduling. Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, 2013, 10 (7): 323- 336. doi: 10.2514/1.I010030
26	HONG Y, CHO N, KIM Y, et al Multiobjective optimization for aircraft arrival sequencing and scheduling. Journal of Air Transportation, 2017, 25 (4): 115- 122. doi: 10.2514/1.D0085
27	ANDREEVA-MORI A, SUZUKI S, ITOH E Rule derivation for arrival aircraft sequencing. Aerospace Science and Technology, 2013, 30 (1): 200- 209. doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2013.08.004
28	PINOL H, BEASLEY J E Scatter search and bionomic algorithms for the aircraft landing problem. Operations Research: Management Science, 2007, 47 (6): 639- 640. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2004.09.040
29	XU B An efficient ant colony algorithm based on wake-vortex modeling method for aircraft scheduling problem. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, 2017, 317, 157- 170. doi: 10.1016/j.cam.2016.11.043
30	FAYE A Solving the aircraft landing problem with time discretization approach. European Journal of Operational Research, 2015, 242 (3): 1028- 1038. doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2014.10.064
31	SOLVELING G, CLARKE J P Scheduling of airport runway operations using stochastic branch and bound methods. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 2014, 45 (S1): 119- 137. doi: 10.1016/j.trc.2014.02.021
32	MA Y Y, HU M H, YIN J N, et al Collaborative sequencing and scheduling method for arrival and departure traffic flow in multi-airport terminal area. Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica, 2017, 38 (02): 225- 237.
33	MA J, SBIHI M, DELAHAYE D. Optimization of departure runway scheduling incorporating arrival crossings. International Transactions in Operational Research 2021, 28(2): 615−637.
34	REEDS J A, SHEPP L A Optimal paths for a car that goes both forwards and backwards. Pacific Journal of Mathematics, 2004, 145 (2): 367- 393. doi: 10.2140/pjm.1990.145.367
35	LIU Z X, HAN W, WU Y, et al Automated sortie scheduling optimization for fixed-wing unmanned carrier aircraft and unmanned carrier helicopter mixed fleet based on offshore platform. Drones, 2022, 6 (12): 375. doi: 10.3390/drones6120375
36	COCHRAN J K, HORNG S M, FOWLER J W A multi-population genetic algorithm to solve multi-objective scheduling problems for parallel machines. Computers and Operations Research, 2003, 30 (7): 1087- 1102. doi: 10.1016/S0305-0548(02)00059-X
37	STORN R, PRICE K Differential evolution-a simple and efficient heuristic for global optimization over continuous spaces. Journal of Global Optimization, 1997, 11 (4): 341- 359. doi: 10.1023/A:1008202821328
38	JIANG T T, SU X C, HAN W. Optimization of support scheduling on deck of carrier aircraft based on improved differential evolution algorithm. Proc. of the IEEE 3rd International Conference on Control Science and Systems Engineering, 2017: 136−140.
39	RODRIGUEZ A, CAMARENA O, CUEVAS E, et al Group-based synchronous-asynchronous grey wolf optimizer. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 2021, 93, 226- 243.

Mission	M1	M2	M3	M4	M5	M6
NAS	6	8	6	10	0	16
NAL	8	6	10	6	16	0

Method	Metric	M1	M2	M3	M4	M5	M6
MPSADE	Opt.	49.90	52.52	54.90	80.97	8.22	43.97
	Ave.	50.79	53.43	57.28	90.17	8.22	52.07
	Std.	0.49	0.94	1.45	7.89	0.00	9.89
DE	Opt.	49.90	53.96	55.62	90.07	8.22	90.61
	Ave.	51.09	71.79	61.65	109.37	8.22	139.11
	Std.	1.01	25.25	5.64	16.61	0.00	42.70
IDE	Opt.	50.22	52.55	56.30	99.20	8.22	59.57
	Ave.	50.97	56.55	61.06	109.66	8.22	101.27
	Std.	0.41	4.18	6.97	10.14	0.00	36.66
WOA	Opt.	52.17	53.95	60.05	82.49	8.22	100.05
	Ave.	84.34	96.33	95.24	136.58	9.39	184.36
	Std.	24.24	40.89	23.11	32.06	3.85	96.20
SAGWO	Opt.	51.46	74.83	60.22	104.87	8.22	43.97
	Ave.	56.41	90.70	68.86	140.51	8.24	89.43
	Std.	7.39	18.02	10.64	21.89	0.08	47.00

Mission	LROM	Opt.	Ave.	Std.	C_ave
M1	LF	287.31	287.76	0.52	10.69
	RF	383.38	386.75	3.97	9.96
	CLR	49.9	50.79	0.49	8.34
M2	LF	321.75	325.72	4.71	11.03
	RF	233.46	247.94	9.72	9.59
	CLR	52.52	53.43	0.94	9.14
M3	LF	324.37	324.91	0.49	11.45
	RF	724.76	730.05	4.88	11.72
	CLR	54.9	57.28	1.45	8.2
M4	LF	344.64	358.29	23.89	11.66
	RF	247.5	268.54	16.72	11.55
	CLR	80.97	90.17	7.89	11.28

[1]	Deng WANG, Wenhao XIAO, Jianshuai SHAO, Yi JIANG. Prelaunch rolling suppression for maritime rockets using RF-AdaBoost [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2026, 37(1): 197-210.
[2]	Hangui ZHU, Xixi CHEN, Teng MA, Yongliang WANG. Deep unfolded amplitude-phase error self-calibration network for DOA estimation [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2025, 36(2): 353-361.
[3]	Feng WU, Xiuluo LIU, Jia WANG, Chao LI, Ying LIU, Jianbin SU, Ailiang ZHANG, Min WANG. Research on agile space emergency launching mission planning simulation and verification method [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2023, 34(5): 1267-1284.
[4]	Bingren JI, Yong WANG, Bin ZHAO, Rongqing XU. Multi-static InISAR imaging for ships under sparse aperture [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2022, 33(3): 575-584.
[5]	Zheng WANG, Zhiyuan HU, Xuanfang YANG. Multi-agent and ant colony optimization for ship integrated power system network reconfiguration [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2022, 33(2): 489-496.
[6]	Steven Xianchuan DING, Linlin LI, Bin JIANG. Unified control and detection framework and its applications: a review, some new results, and future perspectives [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2021, 32(5): 995-1013.
[7]	Ying YUAN, Feng YU, Yang CHEN, Niancheng ZHANG. A method to realize NAVSOP by utilizing GNSS authorized signals [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2021, 32(5): 1232-1245.
[8]	Shuzhen WANG, Yang FANG, Jin'gang ZHANG, Mingshi LUO, Qing LI. Near-field 3D imaging approach combining MJSR and FGG-NUFFT [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2019, 30(6): 1096-1109.
[9]	Long XIANG, Shaodong LI, Jun YANG, Wenfeng CHEN, Hu XIANG. A fast decoupled ISAR high-resolution imaging method using structural sparse information under low SNR [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2019, 30(3): 492-503.
[10]	Yang WANG, Shanshan FU, Bing WU, Jinhui HUANG, Xiaoyang WEI. Towards optimal recovery scheduling for dynamic resilience of networked infrastructure [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2018, 29(5): 995-1008.
[11]	Jiazi GAO, Yongfeng YIN, Lance FIONDELLA, Lijun LIU. Recovery of coupled networks after cascading failures [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2018, 29(3): 650-657.
[12]	Weihong FU, Juan WEI, Naian LIU, Jiehu CHEN. Algorithm for source recovery in underdetermined blind source separation based on plane pursuit [J]. Journal of Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2018, 29(2): 223-228.
[13]	Jiaqi Zhen and Zhifang Wang. DOA estimation method for wideband signals by sparse recovery in frequency domain [J]. Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2017, 28(5): 871-878.
[14]	Wenhao Wang, Shihua Bi, Hongjun Xiang, Chao Zhan, and Xichao Yuan. Trigger control characteristics of fuze-recoil simulation system based on electromagnetic launcher [J]. Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2017, 28(3): 563-571.
[15]	Shuang Qiu, Weixing Sheng, Xiaofeng Ma, Yubing Han, and Renli Zhang. Signal recovery method based on co-prime array [J]. Systems Engineering and Electronics, 2017, 28(2): 224-234.

Collaborative scheduling problem pertaining to launch and recovery operations for carrier aircraft

RichHTML

PDF (PC)

Knowledge

Abstract

Cite this article

Share this article

Figures/Tables 15

References 39

Related Articles 15

Recommended Articles

Metrics

Comments