Automatic aircraft cargo load planning

Abstract

The goal of this paper is the development of a new mixed integer linear program designed for optimally loading a set of containers and pallets into a compartmentalised cargo aircraft. It is based on real-world problems submitted by a professional partner. This model takes into account strict technical and safety constraints. In addition to the standard goal of optimally positioning the centre of gravity, we also propose a new approach based on the moment of inertia. This double goal implies an increase in aircraft efficiency and a decrease in fuel consumption. Cargo loading generally remains a manual, or at best a computer-assisted, and time-consuming task. A fully automatic software was developed to quickly compute optimal solutions. Experimental results show that our approach achieves better solutions than manual planning, within only a few seconds.

Keywords:

• mixed integer programming
• cargo aircraft
• unit load devices
• weight and balance
• moment of inertia
• fuel economy

Acknowledgements

This work was initiated as part of a research project with CHAMP Cargosystems. Special thanks are due to Vincent Eggen, John Martin and David Felten. The paper, however, only expresses the views of the authors. Sabine Limbourg thanks the CIRRELT and HEC Montréal for welcoming her for a six month stay during the execution of this project. Gilbert Laporte was partly funded by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council under grant 39682-10. This support is gratefully acknowledged. We are also grateful to two anonymous referees for helpful suggestions.