Estimation of traffic density from drone-based delivery in very low level urban airspace

Doole, Malik; Ellerbroek, Joost; Hoekstra, Joris

doi:10.1016/j.jairtraman.2020.101862

Cited by 74 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…Here, traffic demand levels are based on the food-delivery scenarios that are described in [16]. Table 3 summarises the resulting traffic demand scenarios.…”

Section: Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, this demand has been exemplified by commercial logistics companies conducting drone delivery test flights in dense urban areas [12,13]. One reason for this interest is the potential environmental benefit [14] and the attractive economics of drone-based delivery [15,16]. However, if the large-scale adoption of drone-based delivery does begin to unfold, safely organising such traffic in the low altitude urban airspace, which is highly constrained by existing street networks and buildings, will be one of the main challenges to overcome.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Constrained Urban Airspace Design for Large-Scale Drone-Based Delivery Traffic

2021

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Large-scale adoption of drone-based delivery in urban areas promise societal benefits with respect to emissions and on-ground traffic congestion, as well as potential cost savings for drone-based logistic companies. However, for this to materialise, the ability of accommodating high volumes of drone traffic in an urban airspace is one of the biggest challenges. For unconstrained airspace, it has been shown that traffic alignment and segmentation can be used to mitigate conflict probability. The current study investigates the application of these principles to a highly constrained airspace. We propose two urban airspace concepts, applying road-based analogies of two-way and one-way streets by imposing horizontal structure. Both of the airspace concepts employ heading-altitude rules to vertically segment cruising traffic according to their travel direction. These airspace configurations also feature transition altitudes to accommodate turning flights that need to decrease the flight speed in order to make safe turns at intersections. While using fast-time simulation experiments, the performance of these airspace concepts is compared and evaluated for multiple traffic demand densities in terms of safety, stability, and efficiency. The results reveal that an effective way to structure drone traffic in a constrained urban area is to have vertically segmented altitude layers with respect to travel direction as well as horizontal constraints imposed to the flow of traffic. The study also makes recommendations for areas of future research, which are aimed at supporting dynamic traffic demand patterns.

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“…Here, traffic demand levels are based on the food-delivery scenarios that are described in [16]. Table 3 summarises the resulting traffic demand scenarios.…”

Section: Independent Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constrained Urban Airspace Design for Large-Scale Drone-Based Delivery Traffic

2021

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“…The large-scale adoption of drones for urban delivery missions could potentially help reduce traffic congestion and thus decrease total anthropogenic CO 2 emissions in cities [6,7]. In contrast to traditional and contemporary transport modes, such as vans and bikes, drones appear to be flexible and cost effective; moreover, they are easily scalable and comparatively less challenging to automate than road vehicles [8]. Yet, the radical changes promised by autonomous delivery drones may only begin to have profound and extended effects on society and its urban environment when deployed in large-scale.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace

Doole

Ellerbroek

2022

Aerospace

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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.

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“…The rapid booming of small UAS (sUAS) operations in and around urban airspace pose challenges for regulatory bodies, airspace manger, etc., but also bring opportunities to unlock potential of the sky. To accommodate the accelerating demand for UAS operations [1], [2], we must answer questions such as how to integrate the UAS into current airspace framework [3], [4] and how to manage the growing operations in urban environments safely and efficiently by leveraging the emerging technologies and effective airspace and traffic management [5]- [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…are the degree of action control by operator and by UaFMS respectively, and their ranges are in[0,1] …”

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confidence: 99%

Framework of Level-of-Autonomy-based Concept of Operations: UAS Capabilities

Pang

Wang

Low

2021

2021 IEEE/AIAA 40th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)

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The utility of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is growing fast in recent years with applications like parcel delivery and security patrol. However, most of the current applications require the involvement of human operator, posing challenges for large-scale UAS deployment due to the operator's and air traffic control officer's (ATCO) limited cognitive capability to control and monitor the traffic. Autonomous UAS operation that reduces the operator and ATCO workload could be a promising solution to meet that challenge. The main aim of this paper, therefore, is to propose a conceptual framework for Level of Autonomy (LoA) based concept of operations (ConOps). The discussion includes the definition and evaluation of LoA and the investigation opportunities of enabling UAS operation at various LoA via case studies. This could be further extended for mixed operation with vehicles of multiple LoA. The framework is presented around core factors defining levels of autonomy for UAS and character for each level in terms of operational actions. Two use cases involving scheduled parcel delivery and non-scheduled emergency operation are presented to demonstrate the evaluation of LoA for a given operation. The proposed framework could serve to identify opportunities for research and engineering development of UAS operations in urban environments.

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Estimation of traffic density from drone-based delivery in very low level urban airspace

Cited by 74 publications

References 6 publications

Constrained Urban Airspace Design for Large-Scale Drone-Based Delivery Traffic

Constrained Urban Airspace Design for Large-Scale Drone-Based Delivery Traffic

Investigation of Merge Assist Policies to Improve Safety of Drone Traffic in a Constrained Urban Airspace

Framework of Level-of-Autonomy-based Concept of Operations: UAS Capabilities

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