Aircraft Architecture and Fleet Assessment Framework for Urban Air Mobility using a System of Systems Approach

This research article explores Urban Air Mobility (UAM) from a System of Systems (SoS) perspective in order to understand the impact of different fully electric UAM aircraft architectures on the overall SoS capability. For this purpose, a framework, combining aircraft design methods with an agent-based simulation, is developed. Thereby, not only different UAM aircraft architectures, but also fleet combinations, technology scenarios, and operational strategies are studied and evaluated for different success criteria. The UAM fleets are simulated for 24-hour operations, considering non-uniform passenger demand, dispatch of passenger as well as deadhead flights, aircraft architectural performance, load factor, energy consumption, and turnaround procedures. A large design of experiments, consisting of approximately 5,000 design points, is executed. Eventually, this article demonstrates the proof of concept for the proposed SoS framework and provides several parameter sensitivities for a given UAM scenario. For such complex SoS, analytical methods would not suffice for understanding complex and often nonlinear interactions. Therefore, the proposed simulation driven framework proves to be successful by providing sensitivity study results, linking subsystem, system (aircraft) and system of system (fleet) level. Thus, the framework allows for comprehensive understanding of the SoS design space and is important for successful deployment or optimization of UAM aircraft & fleet for a given city and operational context

Development of a Conceptual Design Tool for Supersonic Transport with a Variable Fidelity Interface

The growing attention of supersonic transport (SST) renews economic and environmental concerns. New designs shall improve flight efficiency as well as mission, air traffic management (ATM) & air traffic service (ATS) impact, requiring a flexible and collaborative approach. A conceptual design tool linking to varied fidelity domain is developed in DLR since 2005. The focus areas of this paper are: Expanding openAD to design and evaluate future SST Aircraft within a higher-fidelity workflow. Capabilities demonstration of openAD via sensitivity studies of reference vehicle Concorde, HIASC A, HICAC C and X-59A (publicly available data)

System of Systems Simulation Driven Wildfire Fighting Aircraft Design and Fleet Assessment

Large wildfires are increasingly occurring phenomenon in several since the past few years. The suppression of wildfires is complex considering heterogeneous independent constituent systems operating together to monitor, mitigate, and suppress the fire. In addition, the management of the disaster response involve multiple institutions in collaboration. Recognition of this wildfire fighting scenario, as a System of Systems (SoS) is valid. Aerial vehicles may play a big role in firefighting considering monitoring and suppression at early stages when the fire is still small. Thus, there is scope for designing a new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with a payload of 250 kg to 500 kg for aerial forest fire suppression, using a SoS wildfire simulation driven aircraft design approach, where the individual optimum performance of a system, especially of a new aircraft for firefighting, does not guarantee optimum overall firefighting mission effectiveness. Whereas an optimum combination of fleet, technology and operational tactics can effectively suppress fire. For this reason, this research focuses on four different aspects: 1) Applying the inverse design paradigm to a wildfire suppression air vehicle by coupling a fire propagation cellular automata model with a stochastic agent-based simulation of an evolved firefighting SoS. An efficient SoS framework to Evaluate fleet performance. 2) Four System of systems – system – subsystem interlinking research questions are addressed with corresponding sensitivity results. The impact of wildfire based on vehicle fleet size, vehicle architecture (Tiltrotor, Compound Heli, Multirotor or Lift cruise), payload carrying capability, response time and cruise speed. 3) The evolution of perfect combination of aerial vehicle fleet with different vehicle architectures, technologies and performances using simulations. 4) Obtaining a set of system level (aircraft level) Measures of Performance (MoP) for the large suppression UAVs that produce improved SoS-level Measures of Effectiveness (MoE) during an initial attack quantified by containment time and total fire burnt area. As addressed by research questions and results. The response time and Number of Aircraft has large impact on success of the firefighting mission. As the time advantage deteriorate, the wild fire expands exponentially

Exploration of Aerial Firefighting Fleet Effectiveness and Cost by System of Systems Simulations

Wildfires are becoming a more frequent and devastating phenomena across the globe. The suppression of these wildfires is a dangerous and complex activity considering the vast systems that need to operate together to monitor, mitigate, and suppress the fire. In addition, the required cooperation spans multiple institutes in different capacities. Thus, the recognition of the wildfire suppression scenario as a System of Systems (SoS) is valid. Due to the dangers associated with firefighting and the increased occurrence, there is scope for the design of unmanned aerial vehicles for wildfire suppression. In this work, a SoS driven aircraft design, cost, and fleet assessment methodology is utilized together with a wildfire simulation to investigate several sensitivities relating to design and operational parameters. Further, this paper investigates their impacts on the measures of effectiveness, i.e. burnt area and operating cost. These two parameters enable the identification of optimal fleet size for wildfire suppression for a given scenario and aircraft definition

System of Systems Simulation driven Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Design and Fleet Assessment

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is increasingly becoming popular for Passenger or Cargo movement in dense smart cities. Several researches so far are focused on individual vehicle architectures such as multirotor or tiltrotor etc., but not much effort in a System of systems point of view where a homogenous fleet of vehicle with different passenger capacity, speed, and propulsive energy concepts are assessed in a framework for a successful UAM operations in a given city. An effort is made in this paper wherein, vehicle architecture is derived from the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) of scenarios such as urban and suburban operations and as well as propulsion subsystem for sustainable UAM. This paper approaches UAM aircraft design driven by System of Systems (SoS) approach and an agent-based simulation supports the vehicle architecture evaluation and fleet definition. The outcome of this study are: multiple aircraft design with subsystem architectures, ideal fleet size for the respective operational scenarios, autonomy and battery technology effectiveness on UAM throughput (to efficiently provide UAM on-demand service maximum passengers within 15 min wait time), and importantly, sustainability metrics such as total fleet energy required. Several System of Systems, system and subsystem level sensitivity research questions are addressed to understand the interlevel couplin

A system of systems framework for strategic cargo airlift using agent-based modelling

When there is a need to move cargo across the world in the fastest possible manner, airlift is the prime solution. Due to the potential extreme requirements of airlift, aircraft have to be capable of performing in a myriad of operational environments. To support future aircraft design loops, this work proposes a framework which couples aircraft design and operational effectiveness in an agent-based simulation, allowing a more direct evaluation of design choices. Aircraft are modelled with inputs akin to typical design tool outputs, and airlift operational objectives and events are parameterized to allow for user customization and mission tailoring. To deal with stochastic and unexpected events that occur within airlifts, such as aircraft servicing, cargo demand reformulation and airbase access restriction, the aircraft and cargo are modelled as agents and managed by a dispatcher. Aircraft bid for cargo with flights which are configured by the dispatcher, allowing cargo to choose its flight path according to the airlift objective. Through analyzing a theoretical disaster relief mission, the impact of disruptive events on airlift time, cost and cargo throughput is shown to be significant, motivating their inclusion in future analysis. An exploration of aircraft design and airlift objectives is also analyzed, which highlighted the variance in airlift performance due to changes in aircraft payload-range and operational logics. The results demonstrate the framework's ability to capture the varying complexities of the airlift system, exemplifying its utility in future airlift and aircraft design optimization and resilience testing

Aircraft Level Evaluation and SoS Assessment for an Air Interdiction Mission under Operational Constraints

Modern combat vehicles are becoming increasingly expensive due to extensive requirements of multirole warfighting capability. The multirole capability requires several weapons, sensors, communication systems and avoidance subsystems. That leads to non-stealthy, inefficient, and heavier platforms. Thus, there is need to understand the effect of individual platform design and technologies on a multi-vehicle battlespace. Multi-level system dependencies impact performance and effectiveness. This necessitates a holistic System of Systems (SoS) design and assessment methodology. With an SoS battlespace simulation we can evaluate the impact of individual platforms or weapons on an individual mission scenario level. This paper presents an extension to further use cases of a simulation embedded SoS framework, developed at the DLR Institute of Systems Architectures in Aeronautics. The framework spans along equipment, weapons, sensors, subsystems, systems, SoS, mission thread. and mission scenarios/operations. This paper focuses on the evaluation of a counterland Air Interdiction (AI) mission with suppression of enemy air defense aspects including the following: - Obtain a set of aircraft requirements under operational constraints by analyzing the outcome on the battlefield - Study the impact of different strike group sizes and weapon numbers on the mission outcome in a AI scenario - Evaluate impact of the individual vehicle performance mapped to a multi vehicle capability - Demonstrate robustness of the framework across various mission types A Design of Experiment is conducted over system (aircraft), weapon and concept of operations level, evaluating influence of aircraft specific excess power, weapon carriage, radar cross section and strike group size. The results are evaluated via SoS-level measures of effectiveness such as survivability and weapon usage

Exploration of Aerial Firefighting Fleet Effectiveness and Cost by System of Systems Simulations

Wildfires are becoming a more frequent and devastating phenomena across the globe. The suppression of these wildfires is a dangerous and complex activity considering the vast systems that need to operate together to monitor, mitigate, and suppress the fire. In addition, the required cooperation spans multiple institutes in different capacities. Thus, the recognition of the wildfire suppression scenario as a System of Systems (SoS) is valid. Due to the dangers associated with firefighting and the increased occurrence, there is scope for the design of unmanned aerial vehicles for wildfire suppression. In this work, a SoS driven aircraft design, cost, and fleet assessment methodology is utilized together with a wildfire simulation to investigate several sensitivities relating to design and operational parameters. Further, this paper investigates their impacts on the measures of effectiveness, i.e. burnt area and operating cost. These two parameters enable the identification of optimal fleet size for wildfire suppression for a given scenario and aircraft definition