Metropolis: Relating Airspace Structure and Capacity for Extreme Traffic Densities

Metropolis: Relating Airspace Structure and Capacity for Extreme Traffic Densities Emmanuel Sunil, Jacco Hoekstra, Joost Ellerbroek, Frank Bussink, Dennis Nieuwenhuisen, Andrija Vidosavljevic, Stefan Kern To cite this version: Emmanuel Sunil, Jacco Hoekstra, Joost Ellerbroek, Frank Bussink, Dennis Nieuwenhuisen, et al.. Metropolis: Relating Airspace Structure and Capacity for Extreme Traffic Densities. ATM seminar 2015, 11th USA/EUROPE Air Traffic Management R&D Seminar, FAA & Eurocontrol, Jun 2015, Lisboa, Portugal. hal-01168662 HAL Id: hal-01168662 https://hal-enac.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01168662 Submitted on 26 Jun 2015 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Eleventh USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar (ATM2015) Metropolis: Relating Airspace Structure and Capacity for Extreme Traffic Densities Emmanuel Sunil1, Jacco Hoekstra1, Joost Ellerbroek1, Frank Bussink2, 3 4 5 Dennis Nieuwenhuisen , Andrija Vidosavljevic and Stefan Kern 1Control and Simulation, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands 2Cockpit and Flight Operations, National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands 3ATM and Airports, National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands 4Laboratory of Applied Mathematics, Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile (ENAC), Toulouse, France 5Institute of Flight Guidance, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Braunschweig, Germany Abstract—Personal and unmanned aerial vehicles have automated cargo delivery UAVs [5], [6]. In fact, the rapid received increasing media attention over the last decade. As a emergence of PAVs and UAVs over the last decade has led result of the growing excitement for these two aircraft types, many within and outside the aerospace industry to view these many within and outside the aerospace industry envision a future vehicles as important components of a future air transportation in which large numbers of small aircraft fly over urban areas. system. However, before this vision can materialize, an With this vision for the future, the question arises what would be required, in terms of airspace organization, to make this feasible, airspace system that can safely separate and organize large or indeed, if it will be possible at all. In this context, the numbers of aircraft is required [7]. Metropolis project aims to investigate the influence of airspace The difficulty of safely separating a large number of structure on capacity, complexity, safety, and efficiency for high- aircraft can be reduced through careful design of airspace density airspace. To this end, four airspace concepts, ranging from a decentralized direct routing concept, to a highly structure. There is, however, no clear consensus yet on how structured tube network using 4D trajectory-based operations, this should be done. There are, for instance, several studies have been considered. The four concepts were compared by which argue that a well-defined and structured approach is means of large-scale simulation experiments, for multiple required to handle high traffic densities [8], [9]. In such an scenarios that are extreme when compared to current air traffic approach, pre-planned conflict free routes are negotiated densities. This paper presents an overview of the Metropolis between the airspace user and the Air Navigation Service project with a focus on the project objectives, design and Provider (ANSP). In addition to the three-dimensional path that implementation of airspace concepts, and preliminary simulation aircraft are required to follow, the negotiated trajectories results. include arrival time constraints at waypoints along the route. This way, uncertainties regarding the positions of aircraft can Keywords - airspace structure, urban airspace design, air traffic be reduced, allowing for closer packing of several trajectories, control, free flight, 4D trajectory based operations, Personal Aerial and thus, increasing capacity levels over current operations. Vehicles (PAVs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) In contrast, Free Flight studies have found evidence of the opposite: the Free Flight (or unmanaged airspace) concept has I. INTRODUCTION been shown to allow for higher traffic densities by reducing traffic flow constraints and structure [10], [11]. Here, aircraft Since the early days of flight, Personal Aerial Vehicles are allowed to fly user-preferred (often direct) routes, while (PAVs) have been proposed as an alternative to automobiles to separation responsibility is delegated to each individual aircraft solve the ever-rising road traffic congestion problems affecting by means of airborne Conflict Detection and Resolution most urban areas [1]. Despite many failed attempts, recent (CD&R) automation. As a result, traffic is more evenly successful test flights of road-able aircraft designs, by PAL-V distributed over the airspace, thus reducing the number of in the Netherlands and by Terrafugia in the United States, have potential conflicts, thereby increasing both capacity and safety revived interest towards PAVs [2]. Similarly, Unmanned [12], [13]. Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly popular as they can be used for a wide variety of applications that The above dichotomy suggests that airspace structure and previously required more expensive manned aircraft [3]. At capacity are tied together. What is as yet unknown, however, is present, however, large-scale commercial UAV operations are the relationship between these two variables; i.e., does more or still limited by most aviation authorities [4]. This is expected to less structuring lead to higher capacity? Or, is there perhaps a change in the near future, particularly with companies such as transition point, where a further increase in capacity will Amazon and Google pushing towards the introduction of require a switch from one approach to the other? The goal of This research received funding from the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission under grant number 341508 (Metropolis) the Metropolis project, a research initiative funded through the (18.2 million), Shanghai (21.7 million) and Delhi (26.7 Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, million) [16]. is to answer these questions within the context of a future urban air transportation system integrating high volume PAV and Assumption 2: Vehicles for personal air transport have become UAV operations. To study how capacity varies along the widely available dimension of airspace structure, four concepts, ranging from a As mentioned earlier, several PAV variants are already completely unstructured Free-Flight-inspired concept, to a under development, with some models currently undergoing highly structured tube network using pre-planned 4D flight-testing and certification [7]. Given the current pace of trajectories, have been defined. These concepts were compared development, the technical challenges to realize a viable PAV with the aid of large-scale simulation experiments using four are likely to be met within the time frame of the Metropolis extreme traffic scenarios that ranged up to a density of 30,000 scenarios (2050+). aircraft per 10,000 square nautical miles. Subsequently, the capacity-structure relationship was inferred by comparing the Although the current work does not focus on vehicle- concepts across the four demand scenarios in terms of safety related technical specifications, it is considered likely that both and efficiency metrics. conventional and Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) This paper presents an overview of the ongoing Metropolis PAVs reach the market place. Thus, it is assumed that a small project and is structured as follows. In section II, an outline of runway will be required for terminal operations, and more the consortium's vision for the future of urban air transportation importantly, horizontal velocity needs to be maintained to stay is described. Next, the design and implementation of the four airborne, further constraining airspace design. Due to space airspace concepts are discussed in section III and IV restrictions in urban areas, raised platforms above existing respectively. In sections V and VI, preliminary simulation streets seem the most feasible solution for these 'PAV-ports', results are presented and discussed. Finally, the main and a large number of these will need to be located throughout conclusions are listed in section VII. a city to allow near 'door to door' operations. For the creation of Metropolis scenarios, accurate market II. METROPOLIS SETTING FOR 2050 AND BEYOND predictions for PAVs are not required. Since the project centers To provide sufficient grounding for the scenarios in this on the influence of airspace structure on capacity, it is only project, their definition considered (extrapolations of) current necessary to ensure that sufficient traffic volume is simulated trends in aviation technology, demographics, and societal to study this relationship. Nonetheless, it was assumed that one demand for PAVs and UAVs. In this section,

Load more