Monte-Carlo-Based Analysis of Traffic Flow for Urban Air Mobility Vehicles

The research conducted in this dissertation is focused on developing a simulation tool that can predict the traffic flow patterns of the Urban Air Mobility vehicles to alleviate some of the challenges related to their traffic management. First, an introduction to the concept of Urban Air Mobility is given, the usage of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems for Urban Air Mobility vehicles is suggested and dynamic addressing concept is introduced as an answer to a part of air traffic management and address scarcity challenge for Urban air Mobility vehicles. Next, in order to simulate the traffic flow patterns of the Urban Air Mobility vehicles, a Monte-Carlo-based simulation tool is developed, and the simulation results are analyzed for two different cases. These results lead to the proper observation window for the simulations and a solution to determine the approximate number of addresses needed to accommodate the desired number of Urban Air Mobility vehicles, which would be a solution for the address scarcity problem of the Urban Air Mobility vehicles. Furthermore, multiple scenarios of different policies, flexibilities, and their impact on the distribution of the number of active Urban Air Mobility vehicles throughout the day are observed. Results show that decreasing the maximum allowed flight duration in the busy periods of the day is proved to reduce the number of active Urban Air Mobility vehicles. Also, the effect of static and dynamic denials is observed and concluded that the static-denial approach alleviates the traffic faster, but the dynamic denial alternative is more fair, equitable, and adaptable as it offers the clients the option to be waitlisted. Overall, the dynamic-denial approach offers better customer service compared to the static one, and the price adjustment case is the most effective and flexible approach. Moreover, three different scenarios are introduced to observe the cases where the Urban Air Mobility vehicles are able to make both inter-city and intra-city trips. The three scenarios are focused on inter-city cases and consist of cases where the inter-city travelers (1) release their address at the border, (2) keep their addresses while crossing the border, and (3) use a shared address pool. The developed analysis tool using the Monte-Carlo simulation technique predicts the results and the outcomes of the three scenarios are compared using the introduced figures of merit. According to the observations, each scenario has its own advantages and possible limitations. Based on the situation, the air traffic management can examine the options and develop the most suitable policy

Adaptive Airborne Separation to Enable UAM Autonomy in Mixed Airspace

The excitement and promise generated by Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concepts have inspired both new entrants and large aerospace companies throughout the world to invest hundreds of millions in research and development of air vehicles, both piloted and unpiloted, to fulfill these dreams. The management and separation of all these new aircraft have received much less attention, however, and even though NASAs lead is advancing some promising concepts for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM), most operations today are limited to line of sight with the vehicle, airspace reservation and geofencing of individual flights. Various schemes have been proposed to control this new traffic, some modeled after conventional air traffic control and some proposing fully automatic management, either from a ground-based entity or carried out on board among the vehicles themselves. Previous work has examined vehicle-based traffic management in the very low altitude airspace within a metroplex called UTM airspace in which piloted traffic is rare. A management scheme was proposed in that work that takes advantage of the homogeneous nature of the traffic operating in UTM airspace. This paper expands that concept to include a traffic management plan usable at all altitudes desired for electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing urban and short-distance, inter-city transportation. The interactions with piloted aircraft operating under both visual and instrument flight rules are analyzed, and the role of Air Traffic Control services in the postulated mixed traffic environment is covered. Separation values that adapt to each type of traffic encounter are proposed, and the relationship between required airborne surveillance range and closure speed is given. Finally, realistic scenarios are presented illustrating how this concept can reliably handle the density and traffic mix that fully implemented and successful UAM operations would entail

VertiSync: A Traffic Management Policy with Maximum Throughput for On-Demand Urban Air Mobility Networks

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) offers a solution to current traffic congestion by providing on-demand air mobility in urban areas. Effective traffic management is crucial for efficient operation of UAM systems, especially for high-demand scenarios. In this paper, we present VertiSync, a centralized traffic management policy for on-demand UAM networks. VertiSync schedules the aircraft for either servicing trip requests or rebalancing in the network subject to aircraft safety margins and separation requirements during takeoff and landing. We characterize the system-level throughput of VertiSync, which determines the demand threshold at which travel times transition from being stabilized to being increasing over time. We show that the proposed policy is able to maximize the throughput for sufficiently large fleet sizes. We demonstrate the performance of VertiSync through a case study for the city of Los Angeles. We show that VertiSync significantly reduces travel times compared to a first-come first-serve scheduling policy.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Urban Air Mobility: Vision, Challenges And Opportunities

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) involving piloted or autonomous aerial vehicles, is envisioned as emerging disruptive technology for next-generation transportation addressing mobility challenges in congested cities. This paradigm may include aircrafts ranging from small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, to aircrafts with passenger carrying capacity, such as personal air vehicles (PAVs). This paper highlights the UAM vision and brings out the underlying fundamental research challenges and opportunities from computing, networking, and service perspectives for sustainable design and implementation of this promising technology providing an innovative infrastructure for urban mobility. Important research questions include, but are not limited to, real-Time autonomous scheduling, dynamic route planning, aerial-To-ground and inter-vehicle communications, airspace traffic management, on-demand air mobility, resource management, quality of service and quality of experience, sensing (edge) analytics and machine learning for trustworthy decision making, optimization of operational services, and socio-economic impacts of UAM infrastructure on sustainability

Airspace Operations: Vision for 2045 and Beyond

We are seeing interesting changes in airspace operations. We are experiencing growth in global aviation for passenger and cargo travel. At the same time, drones of all sizes, urban air mobility, electric aircraft, commercial space transportation, supersonics, hypersonics, and increasingly autonomous vehicles will continue to mature. These operations along with current aviation will require access to airspace operations. Such access and scalability needs will only continue to increase in the future. Given that systems and procedures that will enable and support the future density and diversity takes a considerable amount of time to build and harmonize across the globe, it is appropriate that research efforts to enable 2045 operations begin now. A perfect storm is brewing as a number of factors are coming together, including: anticipated growth in diversity and density; limitations of our current system to support the growth and diversity; lack of utilization of latest technologies in an increasingly digitized world to support air traffic management; and a long lead time to conduct research, develop requirements, and built and deploy air traffic management systems. All these factors indicate that now is the time to start thinking about the needs of 2045 and beyond. In a limited manner, Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) has shown that new thinking and implementation paths for airspace operations is possible. The current system as it exists is based on many assumptions and limitations of technologies (e.g., radar, human-centered voice communications) which may not be true moving forward given the technologies around us are changing. The panel will discuss the following and related topics: 1. Expected growth in density, diversity, and needed scalability, 2. Likely requirements of air traffic management system to enable and support 2045 and beyond operations, 3. Assumptions related to air traffic management and operations that need to reevaluated based on technology trends, 4. Identification of research priorities and harmonization of research across the globe, and 5. Transition approaches from current air traffic operations to new vision 2045. The panel discussion will be useful for global air traffic management researchers, managers, strategists, airspace users, air traffic management system developers and integrators, and academic researchers

Implementing an urban dynamic traffic model

The world of mobility is constantly evolving and proposing new technologies, such as autonomous driving, electromobility, shared-mobility or even new air transport systems. We do not know how people and things will be moving within cities in 30 years, but for sure we know that road network planning and traffic management will remain critical issues. The goal of our research is the implementation of a data-driven micro-simulation traffic model for computing everyday simulations of road traffic in a medium-sized city. A dynamic traffic model is needed in every urban area, we introduce an easy-to-set-up solution for cities that already have traffic sensors installed. Daily traffic flows are created from real data measured by induction loop detectors along the urban roads in Modena. The result of the simulation provides a set of "snapshots" of the traffic flow within the Modena road network every minute. The main contribution of the implemented model is the ability, starting from traffic punctual information on 400 locations, to provide an overview of traffic intensity on more than 800 km of roads

Održivi urbani razvoj i koncept menadžmenta mobilnosti u Beogradu

Urban mobility and accessibility represent major challenging issues in the functioning of the city of Belgrade, both for the city government as well as for the residents. (In) efficiency of transport systems and street network; decreased mobility and traffic congestion followed with air pollution; limited accessibility and/or dependency on car to certain urban areas especially to sprawling informal settlements at the fringe of Belgrade; spent time, effort, price and lack of comfort that many people experience on a daily bases while commuting from home to school, work, health centers, shopping malls, stores and vice verse; questionable land use still planned with traditional formal sector planning; lack of parking or park-and-ride options, as well as lack of information on mobility options, call together toward complex conception of new adaptive planning, governance and management approaches to sustainable urban development and mobility in an integrated way. Good transportation system and high quality urban environment in the 21st century means choice: quality public transport; safe bicycle traffic; encouraged walking options and pedestrian routes; and good public spaces and place to live in the city where driving a car is a choice and not a necessity. This paper will present contemporary theoretical and practical European approaches in the field of sustainable urban development and mobility management and their applicability to Serbian context trough several case studies from Belgrade as well as achieved results so far, with recommendations for further research, especially for the role of urban planners, urban managers and architects

The Future of Aviation: A Paradigm for Unmanned Aviation Systems and Urban Air Mobility

This presentation provides an overview of Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) and the emerging aviation market for urban air mobility

Urban Air Mobility System Testbed Using CAVE Virtual Reality Environment

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) refers to a system of air passenger and small cargo transportation within an urban area. The UAM framework also includes other urban Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) services that will be supported by a mix of onboard, ground, piloted, and autonomous operations. Over the past few years UAM research has gained wide interest from companies and federal agencies as an on-demand innovative transportation option that can help reduce traffic congestion and pollution as well as increase mobility in metropolitan areas. The concepts of UAM/UAS operation in the National Airspace System (NAS) remains an active area of research to ensure safe and efficient operations. With new developments in smart vehicle design and infrastructure for air traffic management, there is a need for methods to integrate and test various components of the UAM framework. In this work, we report on the development of a virtual reality (VR) testbed using the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) technology for human-automation teaming and airspace operation research of UAM. Using a four-wall projection system with motion capture, the CAVE provides an immersive virtual environment with real-time full body tracking capability. We created a virtual environment consisting of San Francisco city and a vertical take-off-and-landing passenger aircraft that can fly between a downtown location and the San Francisco International Airport. The aircraft can be operated autonomously or manually by a single pilot who maneuvers the aircraft using a flight control joystick. The interior of the aircraft includes a virtual cockpit display with vehicle heading, location, and speed information. The system can record simulation events and flight data for post-processing. The system parameters are customizable for different flight scenarios; hence, the CAVE VR testbed provides a flexible method for development and evaluation of UAM framework

Recent trends in air transport research: a bibliometric analysis

The aim of this manuscript is to detect recent trends in air transport research through a bibliometric analysis. We have retrieved all articles published between 2013 and 2022 in the Q1 of the Transportation ranking of the Social Sciences Citation Index published in the Journal Citations Reports (Q1-T), and in the Journal of Air Transport Management. Both samples share the topics Industry Analysis, Air Traffic Management and COVID-19 and Air Transport. The specific topics of Q1-T sample are High Speed Rail and Air Transport, Environmental Impact of Air Transport and UAV and Urban Air Mobility. We have also found that materials of Q1-T are mainly written from the regulator perspective, and JATM materials from the perspective of airport and airline managers.The aim of this manuscript is to detect recent trends in air transport research through a bibliometric analysis. We have retrieved all articles published between 2013 and 2022 in the Q1 of the Transportation ranking of the Social Sciences Citation Index published in the Journal Citations Reports (Q1-T), and in the Journal of Air Transport Management. Among these records, we retained for the analysis the articles related with air transport. Analysing the author keywords of articles and retaining the Top 10 cited articles in each of the samples, we have identified six research topics for each of the samples. Both samples share the topics Industry Analysis, Air Traffic Management and COVID-19 and Air Transport. The specific topics of Q1-T sample are High Speed Rail and Air Transport, Environmental Impact of Air Transport and UAV and Urban Air Mobility. We have also found that materials of Q1-T are mainly written from the regulator perspective, and JATM materials from the perspective of airport and airline managers. We believe that this results are useful for administrators evaluating air transport academics, air transport academics themselves looking for new avenues of research and stakeholders of the air transport industry interested in evidence-based decision making.Preprin