[论文解读] Trajectory-Based Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Operations Simulator (TUS)

Euclides Carlos Pinto Neto, Derick Moreira Baum+3 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 23, 2019

Air Traffic Management and Optimization参考文献 48被引用 9

一句话总结

本文提出了一种基于轨迹的城市空中交通（UAM）运行仿真器（TUS），这是一种离散事件仿真框架，用于评估电动垂直起降（eVTOL）航空器在城市环境中的轨迹安全性与效率。通过严格遵循最小间隔标准建模载人与非载人eVTOL运行，TUS量化了飞行时长与安全合规性，为在真实城市空域约束下进行轨迹规划提供了测试平台。

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the demand for optimized services in urban environments to provide better society wellness is increasing. In this sense, ground transportation in dense urban environments has been facing challenges for many years (e.g., congestion and resilience). One import outcome of the effort made toward the creation of new concepts for enhancing urban transportation is the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept. UAM aims at enhancing city transportation services using manned and unmanned vehicles. However, these operations bring many challenges to be faced, e.g., the interaction between the controller agent and autonomous vehicles. Furthermore, trajectory planning is not a simple task due to several factors. Firstly, the trajectories must consider a reduced minimum separation as eVTOL vehicle are expected to operate in complex urban environments. This leads the trajectory planning process to observe safety primitives more restrictively once the airspace is expected to comport many vehicles that follow small minimum separation standards. Thereupon, the main goal of the Trajectory-Based UAM Operations Simulator (TUS) is to simulate the Trajectory-Based UAM operations in urban environments considering the presence of both manned and unmanned eVTOL vehicles. For this, a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) approach is adopted, which considers an input (i.e., the eVTOL vehicles, their origin and destination, and their respective trajectories) and produces an output (which describes if the trajectories are safe and the elapsed operation time). The main contribution of this simulation tool is to provide a simulated environment for testing and measuring the effectiveness (e.g., flight duration) of trajectories planned for eVTOL vehicles.

研究动机与目标

• 开发一个用于测试eVTOL航空器在密集城市空域中基于轨迹运行的仿真环境。
• 在严格最小间隔标准下，评估所规划轨迹的安全性与运行效率。
• 支持城市空中交通系统轨迹规划算法的开发与验证。
• 在复杂城市环境中建模自主eVTOL航空器与空中交通管制员之间的交互。

提出的方法

• 仿真器采用离散事件仿真（DES）方法，模拟eVTOL航空器在城市空域中的动态行为。
• 输入包括eVTOL航空器、其起讫点以及预定义的轨迹。
• 基于航空器之间的最小间隔约束，对轨迹进行安全性评估。
• 仿真输出轨迹是否安全，并记录总运行时间。
• 由于交通密度高且间隔标准降低，安全基元被更严格地强制执行。
• 该框架支持在共享城市空域环境中同时模拟载人与非载人eVTOL运行。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 最小间隔标准如何影响城市环境中eVTOL轨迹的可行性与安全性？
• RQ2 高密度运行对轨迹规划与冲突解决有何影响？
• RQ3 eVTOL航空器在真实城市空域约束下，其任务完成效率如何？
• RQ4 该仿真器在多大程度上能够检测冲突并确保自主航空器之间的安全间隔？

主要发现

• TUS仿真器成功在严格最小间隔标准下评估了所规划eVTOL轨迹的安全性。
• 仿真框架能够对飞行时长与运行效率进行定量测量。
• 该工具能够识别轨迹冲突，并在高密度城市空域中确保符合安全基元。
• 离散事件仿真方法有效模拟了自主eVTOL航空器与空中交通管制员之间的动态交互。
• 仿真器为在真实城市空中交通条件下评估轨迹规划算法提供了一个可扩展的测试平台。
• 该框架支持在同一城市空域环境中对载人与非载人eVTOL运行进行分析。