Manhattan Swarm

Restarting simulation

Preparing fleet…

History is sampled every 20 simulation seconds in a rolling window. Averages, minima and maxima describe these samples; short events can occur between samples. Restart or reload clears history.

Equilibrium is a decentralised collision avoidance model being developed as a unified framework for autonomous aircraft. Each aircraft applies shared rules using locally available information to avoid nearby traffic, without requiring a central institution or controller to coordinate avoidance manoeuvres.

Our research examines how this approach performs as traffic density, aircraft capabilities and communication delays vary.

This simulation models delivery, passenger and emergency flights over Manhattan. A service platform assigns tasks, a route planner determines paths, and Equilibrium handles local collision avoidance. An airspace authority may define corridors and restrictions for studying regulated airspace. Equilibrium itself operates independently of this authority.

Real geography: Building footprints, heights and streets come from public datasets. Building shapes are simplified, and façades are illustrative.

Configurable aircraft: Aircraft capabilities are parameterised, allowing us to study existing and hypothetical craft with different propulsion systems and manoeuvring characteristics. The model represents their motion limits and response times; it does not simulate propulsion mechanisms in detail.

Simulated operations: The fleet includes hypothetical designs such as heavy haulers. Tasks and flights are synthetic. Landing pads and airspace rules include simulation assumptions and do not necessarily represent actual facilities or current flight permissions.

Adjust the fleet, demand and operating conditions to explore how traffic responds. We refine the model and update this simulation as our research progresses.