Automatic Aircraft Load Planning

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.