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Virtual Dispatcher

Problem Statement

At the busy University of Central Missouri airport, a human dispatcher is responsible for maintaining the organized flow of flight operations by checking in pilots, matching them up with available aircraft, sending them to flight practice zones (so that no more than two aircraft are in the same zone), and maintaining a waitlist when there are more pilots than aircraft available. The dispatcher must adapt to changing conditions, such as aircraft becoming unavailable due to maintenance. Additionally, they must answer numerous radio calls from aircraft, answer the phone, and help with miscellaneous tasks around the airport. During peak flight times, the process often breaks down due to task saturation for the dispatcher. This results in inefficient use of aircraft resources, long wait times for pilots, and general frustration for everyone.

Our Solution

Virtual Dispatcher is an automated system that relieves much of the workload for the human dispatcher, so they no longer have to think about checking in pilots, maintaining a wait list, or assigning aircraft and practice zones to pilots. There is a desktop computer kiosk for pilot check in and check out. An automated system matches checked-in pilots with available aircraft and practice zones & displays this information in the pilot waiting area. If necessary, pilots are put on a wait list in the order they checked in. If a pilot needs to leave the airport before getting assigned to a flight, they check out and are removed from the wait list. Pilots use their cell phones from the flight line to notify the system when their flight is about to takeoff, after they land, or if something is wrong with the aircraft (needs maintenance). The dispatcher view shows aircraft status and the pilot waitlist. For assigned aircraft, the aircraft status boxes show the pilot name, the assigned practice zone, and whether the aircraft is on the ground or in flight. The dispatcher can also click a box to change the maintenance status of any unassigned aircraft. Virtual Dispatcher could potentially be expanded to include integration with existing aircraft scheduling and maintenance software currently used by the University.

Web Routes

UI

  • / - Flight status.
  • /checkin.html - Check in / out.
  • /dispatcherView.html - The dispatcher view. Shows the wait list and the state of all aircraft
  • /waitingRoom.html - The waiting room view.

Technical Prerequisites

Production

  • Linux
  • Git
  • Docker Community Edition v17.06.2 or later

Local Development

  • Git
  • Java 8
  • Maven
  • MariaDB
  • Node.js

Usage

Production

  1. Clone the master branch using Git
git clone https://github.com/graysonkuhns/virtual-dispatcher.git
  1. Prepare MariaDB
# Start MariaDB
cd ./database
./up.sh
cd ..

# Initialize the database
docker exec -it mariadb /opt/virtual-dispatcher/database/init.sh
  1. Start Virtual Dispatcher
./up.sh

Local Development

# Build the application
mvn clean install

# Run the application
java -jar target/virtual-dispatcher-1.0.0.jar server config.yml

# Interact with the application
Open `http://localhost:8080` in your browser

Front end development

# Start the webpack watcher to compile the source as you work
npm run watch