Urban Air Mobility: Systematic Review of Scientific Publications and Regulations for Vertiport Design and Operations

Abstract

Novel electric aircraft designs coupled with intense efforts from academia, government and industry led to a paradigm shift in urban transportation by introducing UAM. While UAM promises to introduce a new mode of transport, it depends on ground infrastructure to operate safely and efficiently in a highly constrained urban environment. Due to its novelty, the research of UAM ground infrastructure is widely scattered. Therefore, this paper selects, categorizes and summarizes existing literature in a systematic fashion and strives to support the harmonization process of contributions made by industry, research and regulatory authorities. Through a document term matrix approach, we identified 49 Scopus-listed scientific publications (2016–2021) addressing the topic of UAM ground infrastructure with respect to airspace operation followed by design, location and network, throughput and capacity, ground operations, cost, safety, regulation, weather and lastly noise and security. Last listed topics from cost onwards appear to be substantially under-represented, but will be influencing current developments and challenges. This manuscript further presents regulatory considerations (Europe, U.S., international) and introduces additional noteworthy scientific publications and industry contributions. Initial uncertainties in naming UAM ground infrastructure seem to be overcome; vertiport is now being predominantly used when speaking about vertical take-off and landing UAM operations.

Air Traffic Management as a Vital Part of Urban Air Mobility—A Review of DLR’s Research Work from 1995 to 2022

“…Since the vertiport describes a significant bottleneck especially for near-term UAM applications, a vertiport's performance, operational capability and resilience are of great interest. In HorizonUAM, the vertiport is being examined in terms of regulatory and operational state of the art [60], exemplary layout designs and corresponding concept of operations for both low-and high-density throughput scenarios [61], performance-based rating of a vertiport's airside operation [62] and a vertiport's placement inside airport environment [57]. Furthermore, a vertiport network in an urban environment was developed and compared to ground-based traffic networks [37] and the development and validation of real vertiport prototypes and their operation inside a scaled urban environment suitable for flight testing [63] is envisaged.…”

Integrating Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Aircraft into Public Airspace: A Scenario Study

“…In a literature review of urban air mobility (UAM) developments, Garrow et al (2021) identified a need for route optimization algorithms [18]. Another literature review by Schweiger and Preis (2022) affirmed that airspace management and traffic separation principles were critical considerations for UAM development [19]. The study suggested that AAM routes follow arterial highway systems into and out of major cities.…”

Optimal Vertiport Airspace and Approach Control Strategy for Urban Air Mobility (UAM)

“…however, there is a lack of access from an ATC perspective, such as approach control, which occurs around the vertiport. In July 2022, an interesting review paper [34] was published covering discussions between various industries and academia regarding the design and operation of vertiports. In the study, it was mentioned that the initial uncertainty about the name of UAM ground infrastructure was overcome, but studies related to vertiports still tend to describe a vision more than providing a realistic and implementable proposal.…”