A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management
Recent evolutions of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) concept are driving the introduction of new airspace structures and classifications, which must be suitable for low-altitude airspace and provide the required level of safety and flexibility, particularly in dense urba...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-10-01
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| Series: | Aerospace |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/7/11/154 |
| _version_ | 1797549530317586432 |
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| author | Nichakorn Pongsakornsathien Suraj Bijjahalli Alessandro Gardi Angus Symons Yuting Xi Roberto Sabatini Trevor Kistan |
| author_facet | Nichakorn Pongsakornsathien Suraj Bijjahalli Alessandro Gardi Angus Symons Yuting Xi Roberto Sabatini Trevor Kistan |
| author_sort | Nichakorn Pongsakornsathien |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent evolutions of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) concept are driving the introduction of new airspace structures and classifications, which must be suitable for low-altitude airspace and provide the required level of safety and flexibility, particularly in dense urban and suburban areas. Therefore, airspace classifications and structures need to evolve based on appropriate performance metrics, while new models and tools are needed to address UTM operational requirements, with an increasing focus on the coexistence of manned and unmanned Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles and associated Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure. This paper presents a novel airspace model for UTM adopting Performance-Based Operation (PBO) criteria, and specifically addressing urban airspace requirements. In particular, a novel airspace discretisation methodology is introduced, which allows dynamic management of airspace resources based on navigation and surveillance performance. Additionally, an airspace sectorisation methodology is developed balancing the trade-off between communication overhead and computational complexity of trajectory planning and re-planning. Two simulation case studies are conducted: over the skyline and below the skyline in Melbourne central business district, utilising Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). The results confirm that the proposed airspace sectorisation methodology promotes operational safety and efficiency and enhances the UTM operators’ situational awareness under dense traffic conditions introducing a new effective 3D airspace visualisation scheme, which is suitable both for mission planning and pre-tactical UTM operations. Additionally, the proposed performance-based methodology can accommodate the diversity of infrastructure and vehicle performance requirements currently envisaged in the UTM context. This facilitates the adoption of this methodology for low-level airspace integration of UAS (which may differ significantly in terms of their avionics CNS capabilities) and set foundations for future work on tactical online UTM operations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:15:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-813a2ac3357942f4af54304f27b455ea |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-4310 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:15:54Z |
| publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Aerospace |
| spelling | doaj.art-813a2ac3357942f4af54304f27b455ea2023-11-20T18:54:04ZengMDPI AGAerospace2226-43102020-10-0171115410.3390/aerospace7110154A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic ManagementNichakorn Pongsakornsathien0Suraj Bijjahalli1Alessandro Gardi2Angus Symons3Yuting Xi4Roberto Sabatini5Trevor Kistan6School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaRecent evolutions of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) concept are driving the introduction of new airspace structures and classifications, which must be suitable for low-altitude airspace and provide the required level of safety and flexibility, particularly in dense urban and suburban areas. Therefore, airspace classifications and structures need to evolve based on appropriate performance metrics, while new models and tools are needed to address UTM operational requirements, with an increasing focus on the coexistence of manned and unmanned Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles and associated Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) infrastructure. This paper presents a novel airspace model for UTM adopting Performance-Based Operation (PBO) criteria, and specifically addressing urban airspace requirements. In particular, a novel airspace discretisation methodology is introduced, which allows dynamic management of airspace resources based on navigation and surveillance performance. Additionally, an airspace sectorisation methodology is developed balancing the trade-off between communication overhead and computational complexity of trajectory planning and re-planning. Two simulation case studies are conducted: over the skyline and below the skyline in Melbourne central business district, utilising Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). The results confirm that the proposed airspace sectorisation methodology promotes operational safety and efficiency and enhances the UTM operators’ situational awareness under dense traffic conditions introducing a new effective 3D airspace visualisation scheme, which is suitable both for mission planning and pre-tactical UTM operations. Additionally, the proposed performance-based methodology can accommodate the diversity of infrastructure and vehicle performance requirements currently envisaged in the UTM context. This facilitates the adoption of this methodology for low-level airspace integration of UAS (which may differ significantly in terms of their avionics CNS capabilities) and set foundations for future work on tactical online UTM operations.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/7/11/154Urban air mobilityair traffic managementunmanned aircraft systemUAS traffic managementairspacesectorization |
| spellingShingle | Nichakorn Pongsakornsathien Suraj Bijjahalli Alessandro Gardi Angus Symons Yuting Xi Roberto Sabatini Trevor Kistan A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management Aerospace Urban air mobility air traffic management unmanned aircraft system UAS traffic management airspace sectorization |
| title | A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management |
| title_full | A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management |
| title_fullStr | A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management |
| title_short | A Performance-Based Airspace Model for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management |
| title_sort | performance based airspace model for unmanned aircraft systems traffic management |
| topic | Urban air mobility air traffic management unmanned aircraft system UAS traffic management airspace sectorization |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/7/11/154 |
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