Urban Air Mobility

Decision makers at airports and airlines face many challenges and require support to deal with these effectively and appropriately. This gives rise to a variety of difficult and interesting problems. This module looks at three big classes of problems and discusses applicable general solution approaches. // Maximilian Moll’s research focuses on reinforcement learning, one of the three areas in machine learning. His particular interest in this area are combinations with classical methods of operations research as well as application opportunities for prescriptive analytics. The latter pushes past predictive analytics in the sense that it does not only try to predict the future but also to suggest optimum actions to be taken now.He leads the research group “Data-Driven Aviation Management” at Munich Aerospace as well as the working group “Simulation and Optimization of Complex Systems” of the German Society for Operations Research.

Dr. Bernd Korn (German Aerospace Center Braunschweig): This module is about understanding how traffic management for urban air mobility could work and what conditions need to be designed in an urban environment. A special focus is on the topics of the U-space in Europe, the design of vertidromes and the functioning of ground infrastructure. In addition, the module ventures a look into the future and describes possible traffic scenarios in our cities.

Building safe and efficient Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles is quite complex. It is equally challenging integrating vertiports required for UAM vehicles taking off and landing into the urban fabric. While it is possible to include vertiports in transport and land use planning processes, it is quite difficult finding suitable spaces in dense urban areas (where high demand is to be expected) and, at the same time, gaining public acceptance, reducing negative impact such as noise, negative visual effects and safety issues. This module explains the common transport and land use planning processes that are required for building UAM vertiports. Their integration into and competition with existing modes of transport is discussed as well. Inducing demand and simulation results are also explained. // Professor Rolf Moeckel, Associate Professor (Travel Behavior) at Technical University of Munich since 2021; Rudolf Mößbauer Professorship from September 2015 until August 2021; Post-Doctoral Research at National Center for Smart Growth/University of Maryland, USA from August 2013 until August 2015; Doctorate at Institute of Spatial Planning/University of Dortmund, Germany from Julie 2002 until September 2006 (awarded with the 2007 University Dissertation Prize); Diploma at Department of Spatial Planning/University of Dortmund, Germany from October 1998 until August 2000 and from August 2001 until June 2002; Fulbright Scholar (Visiting Graduate Student) at University of Washington/Seattle, USA from September 2000 until July 2001.

This course covers a range of topics related to determining the demand for previously unavailable modes of transport, such as UAM. Collecting user preferences via the stated preference method and using the results of discrete choice models are some examples. User and societal acceptance are other aspects along with practical examples of ways to assess and interpret them. // Constantinos Antoniou is a Full Professor at the Chair of Transportation Systems Engineering at Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany. He holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from NTUA (1995), a MS in Transportation (1997) and a PhD in Transportation Systems (2004), both from MIT. His research focuses on modelling and optimization of transportation systems, data analytics and machine learning for transportation systems. He has a proven track record in attracting competitive funding, both on national and international levels as well as serving as PI for several research projects such as H2020 iDREAMS, MOMENTUM, Drive2thefuture, DFG DVanPool and Trampa. He has authored more than 400 scientific publications, including more than 150 papers in international, peer-reviewed journals as well as 250 publications relating to international conference proceedings, 3 books and has contributed to 20 book chapters.

Professor Rodrigues from Concordia University in Montreal presents the basics of trajectory planning, also, he describes how infrastructure, social acceptance, sustainability, flight data and air traffic management, as well as the regulation and certification serve as most important pillars in air mobility. Besides important considerations, he looks at the system architecture and puts a special focus on various aspects such as flight management or trajectory without collisions.

For many decades Urban Air Mobility (UAM) has been addressed through the use of conventional helicopters. However, the emergence of eVTOL vehicles signals that UAM is on the verge of radical transformation regarding its scale of operation, mainly due to reduced noise pollution and an improved cost structure. This module discusses some of the economic conditions (cost, demand, finance) that must be met for market viability of eVTOL vehicles in passenger transportation networks. // Humberto Bettini is Professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is a B.S. and Ph.D. in Economics, and a M.Sc. in Transportation Engineering. He teaches Cost Accounting, Principles of Economics and Microeconomics, while his research concentrates on competitive and innovative aspects of air transportation and the airline industry.