Dr. Paul Losiewicz, et al have been awarded United States Patent: 8538673 on 9/17/2013 for a software modeling capability that the FAA uses to model the National Airspace.
The patented software tool provides a method for planning/replanning collision free flight plans in real-time comprising the steps of: (a) planning individual flight plans for each flying asset client based on input data; (b) executing the planned individual flight plans; (c) detecting violating individual flight plans that violate safety zones of each of the flying assets; and (d) repairing the individual flight plans by real-time replanning; said repairing comprising using a number of collision avoidance methods; the number of collision avoidance methods comprising cooperative and noncooperative collision avoidance methods; said real time replanning comprising selecting, according to predetermined rules, from the number of collision avoidance methods comprising cooperative and noncooperative collision avoidance methods, one collision avoidance method to solve a predetermined collision; said predetermined collision being selected according to predetermined collision selection rules; said predetermined collision selection rules comprising selecting a first valid collision with highest priority; said predetermined rules comprising selecting said one collision avoidance method based on a difference between collision time for said predetermined collision and a current time.
This tool is now in use by the FAA to model the National Airspace. For more details on the patent go to: http://goo.gl/28vS8y