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With the advancing development of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), there is a collaborative effort to increase safety in the airspace. AAM is an advancing field of aviation that aims to contribute to the safe transportation of goods and people using aerial vehicles. When aerial vehicles are operating in high-density locations such as urban areas, it can become crucial to incorporate collision avoidance systems. Currently, there are available pilot advisory systems such as Traffic Collision and Avoidance Systems (TCAS) providing assistance to manned aircraft, although there are currently no collision avoidance systems for autonomous flights. Standards Organizations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA), and General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) are working to develop cooperative autonomous flights using UAS-to-UAS Communication in structured and unstructured airspaces. This paper presents a new approach for collision avoidance strategies within structured airspace known as “digital traffic lights”. The digital traffic lights are deployed over an area of land, controlling all UAVs that enter a potential collision zone and providing specific directions to mitigate a collision in the airspace. This strategy is proven through the results demonstrated through simulation in a Cesium Environment. With the deployment of the system, collision avoidance can be achieved for autonomous flights in all airspaces.
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Advanced Air Mobility Operation and Infrastructure for Sustainable Connected eVTOL Vehicle
Advanced air mobility (AAM) is an emerging sector in aviation aiming to offer secure, efficient, and eco-friendly transportation utilizing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. These vehicles are designed for short-haul flights, transporting passengers and cargo between urban centers, suburbs, and remote areas. As the number of flights is expected to rise significantly in congested metropolitan areas, there is a need for a digital ecosystem to support the AAM platform. This ecosystem requires seamless integration of air traffic management systems, ground control systems, and communication networks, enabling effective communication between AAM vehicles and ground systems to ensure safe and efficient operations. Consequently, the aviation industry is seeking to develop a new aerospace framework that promotes shared aerospace practices, ensuring the safety, sustainability, and efficiency of air traffic operations. However, the lack of adequate wireless coverage in congested cities and disconnected rural communities poses challenges for large-scale AAM deployments. In the immediate recovery phase, incorporating AAM with new air-to-ground connectivity presents difficulties such as overwhelming the terrestrial network with data requests, maintaining link reliability, and managing handover occurrences. Furthermore, managing eVTOL traffic in urban areas with congested airspace necessitates high levels of connectivity to support air routing information for eVTOL vehicles. This paper introduces a novel concept addressing future flight challenges and proposes a framework for integrating operations, infrastructure, connectivity, and ecosystems in future air mobility. Specifically, it includes a performance analysis to illustrate the impact of extensive AAM vehicle mobility on ground base station network infrastructure in urban environments. This work aims to pave the way for future air mobility by introducing a new vision for backbone infrastructure that supports safe and sustainable aviation through advanced communication technology.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2148178
- PAR ID:
- 10490260
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Drones
- Volume:
- 7
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 2504-446X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 319
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) presents an emerging alternative to traditional car driving for commuting in metropolitan areas. However, its feasibility has not been thoroughly studied nor well understood at the operational level. Given that AAM has not been in place, this study explores the economic, energy, and environmental feasibility of AAM for commuting at an early stage of AAM deployment. We propose a time expanded network model to characterize the dynamics of eVTOL operations between a vertiport pair in different states: in-service flying, relocation flying, charging, and parking, while respecting various operational and commuter time window constraints. By jointly considering eVTOL flying with vertiport access and egress and using real-world data, we demonstrate an application of the model in the Chicago metropolitan area in the US. Different vertiport pairs and eVTOL aircraft models are investigated. We find substantial travel time saving if commuting by AAM. While vehicle operating cost will be higher using eVTOLs than using auto, the generalized travel cost will be less for commuters. On the other hand, with current eVTOL power requirement, the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of AAM will be greater than those of auto driving, with an important contributor being the significance presence of empty flights relocation. These findings, along with sensitivity analysis, shed light on future eVTOL development to enhance the competitiveness of AAM as a viable option for commuting.more » « less
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Advanced air mobility (AAM) has introduced a new mode of air transportation that can be integrated, providing services including air taxis, which can quickly transport people and cargo from one place to another. However, urban airspace is already congested with commercial air traffic, so there is a need for an efficient and autonomous airspace management system. Establishing structured air corridors and enabling UAS-to-UAS (U2U) communications are essential to achieve autonomy. Air corridors are designated airspace primarily reserved for AAM traffic, which will streamline the movement of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Meanwhile, U2U communications facilitate efficient collision avoidance strategies (CAS). A key aspect of this system is the development of CAS, which requires advanced communication protocols to monitor traffic patterns and detect potential collisions. This paper explores designing and implementing CAS using U2U communications. Use cases for U2U communications include merging, minimum separation, information relay, collaborative sensing, and rerouting. All these use cases demand real-time solutions for managing traffic conflicts involving multiple UAS. The CAS discussed in this paper utilizes U2U communications to mitigate the risk of collisions in the airspace and demonstrates how U2U communications can assist in efficient AAM traffic management through simulations.more » « less
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Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) platforms are poised to begin high-density operations in urban areas nationwide. This new category of aviation platforms spans a broad range of sizes, from small package delivery drones to passenger-carrying vehicles. Unlike traditional aircraft, AAM vehicles operate within the urban boundary layer, where large structures, such as buildings, interrupt the flow. This study examines the response of a package delivery drone, a general aviation aircraft, and a passenger-carrying urban air mobility aircraft through an urban wind field generated using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). Since it is burdensome to simulate flight dynamics in real-time using the full-order solution, reduced-order wind models are created. Comparing trajectories for each aircraft platform using full-order or reduced-order solutions reveals little difference; reduced-order wind representations appear sufficient to replicate trajectories as long as the spatiotemporal wind field is represented. However, examining control usage statistics and time histories creates a stark difference between the wind fields, especially for the lower wing-loading package delivery drone where control saturation was encountered. The control saturation occurrences were inconsistent across the full-order and reduced-order winds, advising caution when using reduced-order models for lightly wing-loaded aircraft. The results presented demonstrate the effectiveness of using a simulation environment to evaluate reduced-order models by directly comparing their trajectories and control activity metrics with the full-order model. This evaluation provides designers valuable insights for making informed decisions for disturbance rejection systems. Additionally, the results indicate that using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) solutions to represent urban wind fields is inappropriate. It was observed that the mean wind field trajectories fall outside the 95% confidence intervals, a finding consistent with the authors’ previous research.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7050319
