Aircraft grouping based on improved divisive hierarchical clustering algorithm

•Each group is considered as a control unit and ATC only needs control lead aircraft.•The concepts of position similarity, velocity similarity and heading similarity were defined.•The merging rule about position matrix, velocity matrix and heading matrix was put forward.•DHCA was improved by neighbour set and open hash table.

Because air traffic control efficiency can be largely increased by means of group, the aircraft grouping problem was studied based on improved divisive hierarchical clustering algorithm (DHCA). The concepts of position similarity, velocity similarity and heading similarity were defined and the merging rule about position matrix, velocity matrix and heading matrix was put forward. According to the definition of the most similar point and the neighbor set, the end condition of DHCA was brought forward. In order to increase the search efficiency, the neighbor set was saved by the open hash table. The flow of the improved DHCA was set up by binary tree and open hash table. The simulation results show that the improved DHCA can finish aircraft grouping, and moreover, the time complexity analysis proves that the improved DHCA has a better time efficiency than the bisection method.

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