Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace
Package delivery via autonomous drones is often presumed to hold commercial and societal value when applied to urban environments. However, to realise the benefits, the challenge of safely managing high traffic densities of drones in heavily constrained urban spaces needs to be addressed. This paper...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-02-01
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| Series: | Aerospace |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/9/3/120 |
| _version_ | 1797447740295217152 |
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| author | Malik Doole Joost Ellerbroek Jacco M. Hoekstra |
| author_facet | Malik Doole Joost Ellerbroek Jacco M. Hoekstra |
| author_sort | Malik Doole |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Package delivery via autonomous drones is often presumed to hold commercial and societal value when applied to urban environments. However, to realise the benefits, the challenge of safely managing high traffic densities of drones in heavily constrained urban spaces needs to be addressed. This paper applies the principles of traffic segmentation and alignment to a constrained airspace in efforts to mitigate the probability of conflict. The study proposes an en-route airspace concept in which drone flights are directly guided along a one-way street network. This one-way airspace concept uses heading-altitude rules to vertically segment cruising traffic as well as transitioning flights with respect to their travel direction. However, transition flights trigger a substantial number of merging conflicts, thus negating a large part of the benefits gained from airspace structuring. In this paper, we aim to reduce the occurrence of merging conflicts and intrusions by using a delay-based and speed-based merge-assist strategy, both well-established methods from road traffic research. We apply these merge assistance strategies to the one-way airspace design and perform simulations for three traffic densities for the experiment area of Manhattan, New York. The results indicate, at most, a 9–16% decrease in total number of intrusions with the use of merge assistance. By investigating mesoscopic features of the urban street network, the data suggest that the relatively low efficacy of the merge strategies is mainly caused by insufficient space for safe manoeuvrability and the inability for the strategies to fully respond and thus resolve conflicts on short-distance streets. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:00:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c36740d6e0084d5c88442763bfd19cb2 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-4310 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T14:00:18Z |
| publishDate | 2022-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Aerospace |
| spelling | doaj.art-c36740d6e0084d5c88442763bfd19cb22023-11-30T10:27:40ZengMDPI AGAerospace2226-43102022-02-019312010.3390/aerospace9030120Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban AirspaceMalik Doole0Joost Ellerbroek1Jacco M. Hoekstra2Control and Simulation, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The NetherlandsControl and Simulation, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The NetherlandsControl and Simulation, Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Kluyverweg 1, 2629 HS Delft, The NetherlandsPackage delivery via autonomous drones is often presumed to hold commercial and societal value when applied to urban environments. However, to realise the benefits, the challenge of safely managing high traffic densities of drones in heavily constrained urban spaces needs to be addressed. This paper applies the principles of traffic segmentation and alignment to a constrained airspace in efforts to mitigate the probability of conflict. The study proposes an en-route airspace concept in which drone flights are directly guided along a one-way street network. This one-way airspace concept uses heading-altitude rules to vertically segment cruising traffic as well as transitioning flights with respect to their travel direction. However, transition flights trigger a substantial number of merging conflicts, thus negating a large part of the benefits gained from airspace structuring. In this paper, we aim to reduce the occurrence of merging conflicts and intrusions by using a delay-based and speed-based merge-assist strategy, both well-established methods from road traffic research. We apply these merge assistance strategies to the one-way airspace design and perform simulations for three traffic densities for the experiment area of Manhattan, New York. The results indicate, at most, a 9–16% decrease in total number of intrusions with the use of merge assistance. By investigating mesoscopic features of the urban street network, the data suggest that the relatively low efficacy of the merge strategies is mainly caused by insufficient space for safe manoeuvrability and the inability for the strategies to fully respond and thus resolve conflicts on short-distance streets.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/9/3/120urban airspace designconstrained airspaceadvanced air mobilitydelivery dronesflying taxis |
| spellingShingle | Malik Doole Joost Ellerbroek Jacco M. Hoekstra Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace Aerospace urban airspace design constrained airspace advanced air mobility delivery drones flying taxis |
| title | Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace |
| title_full | Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace |
| title_fullStr | Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace |
| title_short | Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace |
| title_sort | investigation of merge assist policies to improve safety of drone traffic in a constrained urban airspace |
| topic | urban airspace design constrained airspace advanced air mobility delivery drones flying taxis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/9/3/120 |
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