Researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have successfully conducted the first flight tests in a newly erected model city. The tests are part of DLR’s research project HorizonUAM and took place at the National Experimental Test Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Cochstedt, Germany, in October and November 2022. The overall goal of HorizonUAM is the investigation of opportunities and risks of urban air mobility (UAM). Special focus is placed on air taxis that could transport passengers through urban airspaces, either piloted, remotely piloted or potentially fully autonomously in the future.
A growing city made of shipping containers
Shipping containers were used to erect the first “houses” of a model city in 1:4 scale at DLR’s test site in Cochstedt. Areas for starting and landing of future air taxis, so called vertiports, are also available at the site. The model city is intended to grow further in the future and can then be flexibly arranged for varying urban scenarios.
Researchers from the DLR Institutes of Flight Guidance, Flight Systems, and Communication and Navigation used smaller multicopters as representatives of air taxis for demonstrating initial UAM scenarios in the model city. The research project and the flight demonstrations bring together different highly specialized research disciplines. The DLR Institute of Flight Guidance investigates, among other topics, the collision avoidance and interaction of airspace users within U-space. (U-space is intended to become the future European air traffic management system for drones and air taxis.) The safe and certifiable application of artificial intelligence is investigated by the DLR Institute of Flight Systems. Machine-learning algorithms are exemplarily used for the detection of persons on the ground. Closed airspaces, e.g. due to detected persons, can be further protected by so-called “geo-fences”. Researchers from the Institute of Communication and Navigation equipped their drones with prototype sensors that could also be useful for air taxis. Their research focus lies on the specific characteristics of navigation and communication systems in urban environments.
Integrating air taxis at existing airports
In parallel to the conducted flight tests, UAM simulators are in use for the HorizonUAM project at the Institute of Flight Guidance in Braunschweig. Several air traffic controllers have participated in a human-in-the-loop experiment in a tower simulator. The controllers tested procedures for the integration of vertiports in the vicinity of airports – exemplarily simulated for the airport of Hamburg. Furthermore, procedures and supporting systems for collision avoidance with uncooperative airspace users, such as bird flocks, were assessed.
Additionally, researchers from the institute equipped a UAM cabin simulator with a mixed-reality visual system. This will be used for assessing air-taxi flights from the passengers’ perspective. An initial feasibility study has been successfully conducted. The results on simulation technology and display design serve as the basis for the main study that will start soon. Passengers will then experience several air-taxi flights within the simulated city of Hamburg. These results will also be used for the final assessment of the opportunities and risks of UAM.