TY - JOUR A1 - Borndörfer, Ralf A1 - Danecker, Fabian A1 - Weiser, Martin T1 - Error Bounds for Discrete-Continuous Free Flight Trajectory Optimization T2 - Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications N2 - Flight planning, the computation of optimal routes in view of flight time and fuel consumption under given weather conditions, is traditionally done by finding globally shortest paths in a predefined airway network. Free flight trajectories, not restricted to a network, have the potential to reduce the costs significantly, and can be computed using locally convergent continuous optimal control methods. Hybrid methods that start with a discrete global search and refine with a fast continuous local optimization combine the best properties of both approaches, but rely on a good switchover, which requires error estimates for discrete paths relative to continuous trajectories. Based on vertex density and local complete connectivity, we derive localized and a priori bounds for the flight time of discrete paths relative to the optimal continuous trajectory, and illustrate their properties on a set of benchmark problems. It turns out that localization improves the error bound by four orders of magnitude, but still leaves ample opportunities for tighter bounds using a posteriori error estimators. Y1 - 2023 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-zib/frontdoor/index/index/docId/8331 VL - 198 SP - 830 EP - 856 ER -