Capacity of a constrained urban airspace: Influencing factors, analytical modelling and simulations

The traffic density of small aerial vehicles operating within urban environments is expected to increase significantly in the near future. This urban environment is highly constrained due to being limited to the low-altitude airspace directly above the existing road network. Multiple studies have addressed factors influencing the capacity of...

Improving Safety of Vertical Manoeuvres in a Layered Airspace with Deep Reinforcement Learning

Current estimates show that the presence of unmanned aviation is likely to grow exponentially over the course of the next decades. Even with the more conservative estimates, these expected high traffic densities require a re-evaluation of the airspace structure to ensure safe and efficient operations. One structure that scored high on both the...

An Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Capacity of Constrained Urban Airspace

The traffic density of small aerial vehicles operating within urban environments is expected to increase significantly in the near future. This urban environment is highly constrained due to being limited to the low-altitude airspace directly above the existing road network. To increase understanding of the factors influencing the capacity of...

Improvement of Conflict Detection and Resolution at High Densities Through Reinforcement Learning

The use of drones for applications such as package delivery, in an urban setting, would result in traffic densities that are orders of magnitude higher than any observed in manned aviation. Current geometric resolution models have proven to be very efficient. However, at the extreme densities envisioned for such drone applications, performance...

Analysis of Conflict Resolution Methods for Manned and Unmanned Aviation Using Fast-Time Simulations

In the coming years, aviation will have to cope with an increase in the number of aircraft, and of drones purchased in the open market. The human intervention of Air Traffic Management (ATM) will be overburden with guaranteeing flight safety with hundreds of manned aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) operating simultaneously. Conflict...

Analyzing the Effect of Traffic Scenario Properties on Conflict Count Models

Decentralized en-route airspace concepts have been proposed by many studies to increase airspace safety and capacity. Most of these studies, including our own forays into this domain, have used fast-time simulation experiments to explore the benefits offered by decentralization. While simulations are indispensable during the initial design phase...

Fuel and Emission Benefits for Continuous Descent Approaches at Schiphol

This paper presents an analysis of the potential fuel and emission benefits of implementing Continuous Descent Operations at Schiphol International Airport, from cruise altitude to the final approach fix, for a large scope of aircraft types. Using historical data from on-board sources and ADS-B, fuel-optimal continuous descents are simulated...

CAMDA: Capacity Assessment Method for Decentralized Air Traffic Control

This paper presents a semi-empirical method to determine the maximum theoretical capacity of decentralized airspace concepts. The method considered here, named Capacity Assessment Method for Decentralized ATC (CAMDA), formalizes an earlier approach described in literature, extends it for threedimensional airspace, and also improves the accuracy...

Modeling Airspace Stability and Capacity for Decentralized Separation

In the context of decentralized separation, airspace stability pertains to the propagation of con?ict chain reactions as a result of tactical con?ict resolution maneuvers. This notion of airspace stability has been used in previous literature to develop a semi-empirical method for determining the capacity of a decentralized direct-routing...

Modeling the Intrinsic Safety of Unstructured and Layered Airspace Designs

Previous research relating airspace structure and ca-pacity has shown that a decentralized layered airspace concept, in which each altitude band limited horizontal travel to within a prede?ned heading range, improved safety when compared to unstructured airspace. However, the extent of the safety bene?ts of such layered airspace designs were not...

Effect of ADS-B Characteristics on Airborne Conflict Detection and Resolution

Most Free-Flight concepts rely on self-separation by means of airborne Conflict Detection and Resolution (CD&R) algorithms. A key enabling technology for airborne CD&R is the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) system, which is used for direct state information exchange between aircraft. Similar to other communication...