Results for “UAM” — Page 17

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Conceptual Design of Tiltrotor Aircraft for Urban Air Mobility

There has been an abundance of new and novel aircraft designs created for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) in recent years. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contributes to the research and development of this industry in part by applying its aircraft design tools to create conceptual designs of UAM reference vehicles. The vehicles are intended to quantify the tradeoffs and performance capabilities necessary for VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft in the UAM design space. The reference vehicles represent a variety of configurations that seek to encompass many of the design characteristics suitable for UAM. This work focuses on the conceptual design process of two new NASA reference vehicles. Both aircraft are configured as conventional tiltrotors, but one is powered by turboshaft engines, and one is fully electric. The sizing and performance of the two aircraft are discussed, as well as how the performance and characteristics compare to a selection of other NASA reference vehicles. It is found that the tiltrotor configuration is capable of reaching speeds 43% to 51% faster than the other turboshaft designs, and 54% to 93% faster than the other electric designs. The increased speed leads to a 24% to 42% decrease in overall mission time.

Conceptual Design↗

NASA NTRS2022

Urban Air Mobility Electric Motor Winding Insulation Reliability: Challenges in the Design and Qualification of High Reliability Electric Motors and NASA’s Research Plan

This work was motivated by the needs of the emerging Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept. Guided by analyses of concept vehicles, electric motor winding insulation reliability was identified as a subsystem limiting the vehicle reliability. This paper covers NASA’s understanding of the current state-of-the-art for electric motor winding insulation reliability, life modeling and qualification testing in the context of UAM. The needed improvements to the accepted practice for qualification of high reliability UAM motors are highlighted. NASA’s Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technologies Project strives to develop new testing methods to support the rating and qualification of UAM motor winding insulation. We describe assumptions used to frame a research approach, and we outline a NASA RVLT research plan for motor winding insulation.

Thomas Tallerico↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Performance Evaluation of Flight Path Management Onboard Automation

Significant developments in automation are necessary to achieve safe and efficient operations in advanced aerial mobility related concepts. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is rapidly growing, emerging field that poses a challenging use case with a tighter scale of operations compared to the traditional commercial transport paradigm. A large part of the challenge is the uncharted territory; as of this paper, no set of operational standards or guidelines for UAM operations have been established and automated en route operations for UAM level 4 (UML-4) have not been studied. Flight Path Management (FPM) automation provides a set of capabilities that are critical toward enabling airborne vehicles to achieve mission success while maintaining operational safety. An initial performance evaluation of FPM automation was conducted using a UAM-adapted version of the Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), an onboard trajectory management capability developed over years of research targeting commercial transport operations, as its reference implementation. This paper describes the evaluation, including the approach and methodology for simulating FPM automation in UML-4, key results, future work, and conclusions.

flight path management↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Initial Performance Evaluation of Flight Path Management Onboard Automation

Significant developments in automation are necessary to achieve safe and efficient operations in advanced aerial mobility related concepts. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is rapidly growing, emerging field that poses a challenging use case with a tighter scale of operations compared to the traditional commercial transport paradigm. A large part of the challenge is the uncharted territory; as of this paper, no set of operational standards or guidelines for UAM operations have been established and automated en route operations for UAM level 4 (UML-4) have not been studied. Flight Path Management (FPM) automation provides a set of capabilities that are critical toward enabling airborne vehicles to achieve mission success while maintaining operational safety. An initial performance evaluation of FPM automation was conducted using a UAM-adapted version of the Autonomous Operations Planner (AOP), an onboard trajectory management capability developed over years of research targeting commercial transport operations, as its reference implementation. This paper describes the evaluation, including the approach and methodology for simulating FPM automation in UML-4, key results, future work, and conclusions.

flight path management↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

A Comprehensive eVTOL Performance Evaluation Framework in Urban Air Mobility

In this paper, we developed an open-source simulation framework for the evaluation of electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) in the context of Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) and under the concept of Urban Air Mobility (UAM). Unlike most existing studies, the proposed framework combines the utilization of UTM and eVTOLs to develop a realistic UAM testing platform. For this purpose, we first develop an UTM simulator to simulate the real-world UAM environment. Then, instead of using a simplified eVOTL model, a high-fidelity eVTOL design tool, namely SUAVE, is employed and an dilation sub-module is introduced to bridge the gap between the UTM simulator and SUAVE eVTOL performance evaluation tool to elaborate the complete mission profile. Based on the developed simulation framework, experiments are conducted and the results are presented to analyze the performance of eVTOLs in the UAM environment.

Mrinmoy Sarkar↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Effects of Communication Modality on Pilot-Controller Coordination during a Simulated m:N Operation

The last decade or so has seen growing interest in new control paradigms and concepts of operation for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) in which multiple aircraft are piloted remotely by a single or relatively small number of people. Referred to as “one-to-many” and “many-to- many” (alternatively, “multi-operator, multi-vehicle”)—and frequently expressed as the corresponding ratios, 1:N and m:N—such novel configurations of aircraft and the people who manage them are seen as critical to the path to future operations involving UAS. Examples of industry domains interested in these control paradigms are small package delivery services utilizing small UAS and passenger-carrying, short-range “Urban Air Mobility” (UAM) operations. Stakeholders in such operations have identified communication and coordination of flight activity with air traffic controllers (ATC) as a barrier to operations. In contrast to present-day flight operations, in which a pilot communicates with one ATC on one radio frequency for one aircraft, multi-vehicle operations potentially entail a significant increase in pilot task load for management of comms. New concepts, such as UAS Service Suppliers (USSs) and Providers of Services to UAM (PSUs), have been proposed to address the known bottleneck for Air Traffic Management (ATM) presented by multi-vehicle operations. While progress has been steadily made over years developing USSs and PSUs, it is generally expected that initial UAM operations will rely on traditional voice-over-radio communication with ATC for purposes of ATM. The current study was a human-in-the-loop simulation that had participants, each possessing a Private Pilot License, act as the ground-based pilot-in- command for multiple vehicles in a hypothetical UAM service in the San Francisco Bay Area. The experiment utilized a 2-by-3, within-subjects design in which the pilot’s Vehicle Load (4 vs. 12) and Comm System (Voice, Datalink, and a Hybrid) were manipulated. The task given to pilots was to use the Comm System to coordinate flight activity for all aircraft with appropriate controllers, having to obtain departure and arrival clearances at “vertiport” facilities and transition clearances for any intermediate airspaces along the route. Pilots were additionally responsible for compliance with vectoring instructions issued by ATC. Subjective workload questionnaires (NASA-TLX) were administered following each experimental trial. Screen recordings of the pilot’s Ground Control Station (GCS) and audio recordings of trials were subsequently coded to obtain performance metrics: response times and error rates. Presented in this paper are results related to pilot responses to vectoring instructions issued by ATC. Workload was found to be significantly higher in the 12-Vehicle condition compared to the 4-Vehicle condition, nearly maxing out the NASA-TLX overall workload scale. There was no significant difference made by the Comm System on workload ratings. Pilots’ response times to communications were fastest in the Voice condition, although overall “service time” for compliance was shorter in Datalink and Hybrid conditions in most cases. Errors by pilots were frequent in both Vehicle Load conditions, most perniciously when using the Voice system. The results of this study suggest tradeoffs in advantages and disadvantages of the three comm systems. Recommendations for communication system design are provided taking the tradeoffs into account.

Garrett G Sadler↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Effects of Communication Modality on Pilot-Controller Coordination during a Simulated m:N Operation

The last decade or so has seen growing interest in new control paradigms and concepts of operation for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) in which multiple aircraft are piloted remotely by a single or relatively small number of people. Referred to as “one-to-many” and “many-to- many” (alternatively, “multi-operator, multi-vehicle”)—and frequently expressed as the corresponding ratios, 1:N and m:N—such novel configurations of aircraft and the people who manage them are seen as critical to the path to future operations involving UAS. Examples of industry domains interested in these control paradigms are small package delivery services utilizing small UAS and passenger-carrying, short-range “Urban Air Mobility” (UAM) operations. Stakeholders in such operations have identified communication and coordination of flight activity with air traffic controllers (ATC) as a barrier to operations. In contrast to present-day flight operations, in which a pilot communicates with one ATC on one radio frequency for one aircraft, multi-vehicle operations potentially entail a significant increase in pilot task load for management of comms. New concepts, such as UAS Service Suppliers (USSs) and Providers of Services to UAM (PSUs), have been proposed to address the known bottleneck for Air Traffic Management (ATM) presented by multi-vehicle operations. While progress has been steadily made over years developing USSs and PSUs, it is generally expected that initial UAM operations will rely on traditional voice-over-radio communication with ATC for purposes of ATM. The current study was a human-in-the-loop simulation that had participants, each possessing a Private Pilot License, act as the ground-based pilot-in- command for multiple vehicles in a hypothetical UAM service in the San Francisco Bay Area. The experiment utilized a 2-by-3, within-subjects design in which the pilot’s Vehicle Load (4 vs. 12) and Comm System (Voice, Datalink, and a Hybrid) were manipulated. The task given to pilots was to use the Comm System to coordinate flight activity for all aircraft with appropriate controllers, having to obtain departure and arrival clearances at “vertiport” facilities and transition clearances for any intermediate airspaces along the route. Pilots were additionally responsible for compliance with vectoring instructions issued by ATC. Subjective workload questionnaires (NASA-TLX) were administered following each experimental trial. Screen recordings of the pilot’s Ground Control Station (GCS) and audio recordings of trials were subsequently coded to obtain performance metrics: response times and error rates. Presented in this paper are results related to pilot responses to vectoring instructions issued by ATC. Workload was found to be significantly higher in the 12-Vehicle condition compared to the 4-Vehicle condition, nearly maxing out the NASA-TLX overall workload scale. There was no significant difference made by the Comm System on workload ratings. Pilots’ response times to communications were fastest in the Voice condition, although overall “service time” for compliance was shorter in Datalink and Hybrid conditions in most cases. Errors by pilots were frequent in both Vehicle Load conditions, most perniciously when using the Voice system. The results of this study suggest tradeoffs in advantages and disadvantages of the three comm systems. Recommendations for communication system design are provided taking the tradeoffs into account.

urban air mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Requirement Discovery Using Embedded Knowledge Graph With ChatGPT

The field of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is witnessing a transformation with innovations such as electric aircraft and increasingly automated airspace operations. Within AAM, the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) con-cept focuses on providing air-taxi services in densely populated urban areas. This research introduces the utilization of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI's GPT-4, to enhance the UAM Requirement discovery process. This study explores two distinct approaches to leverage LLMs in the context of UAM Requirement discovery. The first approach evaluates the LLM's ability to provide responses without relying on additional outside systems, such as a relational or graph database. Instead, a vector store provides relevant information to the LLM based on the user’s question, a process known as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). The second approach integrates the LLM with a graph database. The LLM acts as an intermediary between the user and the graph database, translating user questions into cypher queries for the database and database responses into human-readable answers for the user. Our team implemented and tested both solutions to analyze require-ments within a UAM dataset. This paper will talk about our approaches, implementations, and findings related to both approaches.

systems engineering↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Requirement Discovery Using Embedded Knowledge Graph with ChatGPT

The field of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is witnessing a transformation with innovations such as electric aircraft and increasingly automated airspace operations. Within AAM, the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept focuses on providing air-taxi services in densely populated urban areas. This research introduces the utilization of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI's GPT-4, to enhance the UAM Requirement discovery process. This study explores two distinct approaches to leverage LLMs in the context of UAM Requirement discovery. The first approach evaluates the LLM's ability to provide responses without relying on additional outside systems, such as a relational or graph database. Instead, a vector store provides relevant information to the LLM based on the user’s question, a process known as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). The second approach integrates the LLM with a graph database. The LLM acts as an intermediary between the user and the graph database, translating user questions into cypher queries for the database and database responses into human-readable answers for the user. Our team implemented and tested both solutions to analyze requirements within a UAM dataset. This paper will talk about our approaches, implementations, and findings related to both approaches.

systems engineering↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Requirement Discovery Using Embedded Knowledge Graph With ChatGPT - Poster

The field of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is witnessing a transformation with innovations such as electric aircraft and increasingly automated airspace operations. Within AAM, the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) con-cept focuses on providing air-taxi services in densely populated urban areas. This research introduces the utilization of Large Language Models (LLMs), such as OpenAI's GPT-4, to enhance the UAM Requirement discovery process. This study explores two distinct approaches to leverage LLMs in the context of UAM Requirement discovery. The first approach evaluates the LLM's ability to provide responses without relying on additional outside systems, such as a relational or graph database. Instead, a vector store provides relevant information to the LLM based on the user’s question, a process known as Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). The second approach integrates the LLM with a graph database. The LLM acts as an intermediary between the user and the graph database, translating user questions into cypher queries for the database and database responses into human-readable answers for the user. Our team implemented and tested both solutions to analyze require-ments within a UAM dataset. This paper will talk about our approaches, implementations, and findings related to both approaches.

systems engineering↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of Initial and Mid-Term Air Traffic Procedures for Urban Air Mobility Operations

Urban air mobility (UAM) operations are expected to expand in scale over the next several years as novel aircraft types, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, are certified and begin operations. These new aircraft may increase safety, decrease noise, and lower operating costs compared with helicopters, allowing them to operate in ways existing aircraft do not. It is vital that these expanded operations are compatible with and do not disrupt existing operations or the air traffic management system. To study the ways in which scaled UAM operations can best integrate in the national airspace system, NASA and Joby Aviation partnered to conduct a high-fidelity air traffic controller-in-the-loop study. Building on air traffic procedures used to manage high tempo operations in other parts of the airspace, new procedures, routes, and communications protocols were developed and tested by retired controllers in NASA’s Future Flight Central tower simulation facility. In addition, new cooperative airspace constructs in the form of corridors were developed to understand their potential contributions to even greater scales of operation. The controllers managed traffic scenarios in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field airports consisting of fleets of up to 100 UAM aircraft operating alongside traditional traffic . Metrics for air traffic controller workload, duration of communications, departure delays, and other measures of allowable aircraft throughput were collected. The analysis indicates that using today’s procedures for initial UAM operations under nominal conditions could enable up to 40 operations per hour to an airport’s central terminal area if that involved crossing a runway and up to 55operations per hour if reaching the central terminal did not involve crossing a runway. Operations at these tempos did not delay or otherwise interfere with simulated runway traffic and were rated acceptable by the air traffic controllers. The new corridor constructs dramatically lowered controller workload in certain circumstances, suggesting they may be effective in further increasing the allowable scale of operations.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Evaluation of Initial and Mid-Term Air Traffic Procedures for Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility (UAM) operations are expected to expand in scale over the next several years as novel aircraft types, including electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, are certified and begin operations. These new aircraft may increase safety, decrease noise, and lower operating costs compared with helicopters, allowing them to operate in ways existing aircraft do not. It is vital that these expanded operations are compatible with and do not disrupt existing operations or the air traffic management system. To study the ways in which scaled UAM operations can best integrate in the national airspace system, NASA and Joby Aviation partnered to conduct a high-fidelity air traffic controller-in-the-loop study. Building on air traffic procedures used to manage high tempo operations in other parts of the airspace, new procedures, routes, and communications protocols were developed and tested by retired controllers in NASA’s Future Flight Central tower simulation facility. In addition, new cooperative airspace constructs in the form of corridors were developed to understand their potential contributions to even greater scales of operation. The controllers managed traffic scenarios in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Dallas Love Field airports consisting of fleets of up to 100 UAM aircraft operating alongside traditional traffic. Metrics for air traffic controller workload, duration of communications, departure delays, and other measures of allowable aircraft throughput were collected. The analysis indicates that using today’s procedures for initial UAM operations under nominal conditions could enable up to 40 operations per hour to an airport’s central terminal area if that involved crossing a runway and up to 55 operations per hour if reaching the central terminal did not involve crossing a runway. Operations at these tempos did not delay or otherwise interfere with simulated runway traffic and were rated acceptable by the air traffic controllers. The new corridor constructs dramatically lowered controller workload in certain circumstances, suggesting they may be effective in further increasing the allowable scale of operations.

Advanced Air Mobility↗

DOE OSTI2020

Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing

Ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM) is a solid-state hybrid manufacturing technique that leverages the principles of ultrasonic welding, mechanized tape layering, and computer numerical control (CNC) machining operations to create three-dimensional metal parts. This article begins with a discussion on the process fundamentals and process parameters of UAM. It then describes metallurgical aspects in UAM. The article provides a detailed description of a wide range of mechanical characterization techniques of UAM, namely tensile testing, peel testing, and pushpin testing. The article ends with information on sensor embedding.

Niyanth S, Niyanth↗

NASA NTRS2023

Pilots’ Perspectives on Urban Air Mobility Safety Challenges and Potential Solutions

As electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxis make their way to urban airspace operations within the United States National Airspace System, many research efforts are underway to identify and understand pertinent issues needed to support the influx of new, passenger-carrying, air vehicles over highly dense, urban communities. The primary focus of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Pilot/Provider of Services for UAM Information Exchange and Contingency Airspace Management Procedures study was to gather subjective data from subject matter experts concerning current-day airspace operations to identify potential gaps and improvements needed to support and sustain near-term UAM operations. These potential gaps and improvements will form the foundation for the development of initial information exchange requirements between the on-board pilot in command and other key entities. This paper focuses on the in-flight incapacitated pilot scenario from Phase I of the study, which gathered data from helicopter and general aviation fixed-wing pilots.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Pilots’ Perspectives on Urban Air Mobility Safety Challenges and Potential Solutions

As electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxis make their way to urban airspace operations within the United States National Airspace System, many research efforts are underway to identify and understand pertinent issues needed to support the influx of new, passenger-carrying, air vehicles over highly dense, urban communities. The primary focus of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Pilot/Provider of Services for UAM Information Exchange and Contingency Airspace Management Procedures study was to gather subjective data from subject matter experts concerning current-day airspace operations to identify potential gaps and improvements needed to support and sustain near-term UAM operations. These potential gaps and improvements will form the foundation for the development of initial information exchange requirements between the on-board pilot in command and other key entities. This paper focuses on the in-flight incapacitated pilot scenario from Phase I of the study, which gathered data from helicopter and general aviation fixed-wing pilots.

Urban Air Mobility↗

NASA NTRS2020

Understanding Risk in Urban Air Mobility: Moving Towards Safe Operating Standards

Urban Air Mobility (UAM), i.e. on-demand urban passenger (and cargo) transportation services, represents a new technology and potentially an emerging industry. It is not simply an extension of commercial aviation as we know it—it is a different domain. A first priority for UAM is that it be safe and secure (Booz, Allen, Hamilton, 2018; Crown, Consulting, Inc., 2018). A workshop held in Arlington, Virginia, brought together experts from the on-demand world (including UAM) to assess and prioritize the challenges and barriers to be addressed in successfully introducing On Demand Mobility (ODM) vehicles and services (ODM and Emerging Technology Workshop, 2016). Of the nine challenges assessed, the highest priority was assigned to certification, followed by affordability, and then safety. Considering the confluence of certification and safety, it is clear that risk and its assessment were judged to be of high relevance to workshop participants.

UAM↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Capacity and Throughput of Urban Air Mobility Vertiports with a First-Come, First-Served Vertiport Scheduling Algorithm

In this paper, a first-come, first-served vertiport scheduling algorithm for Urban Air Mobility (UAM) was exercised to assess and compare the capacity and throughput of various vertiport configurations. The scheduler models each vertiport by the number of vertipads and parking spaces, and manages reservations on timelines for those vertiport resources, at a level of fidelity suitable for fast-time and system-level analyses of UAM concepts and other airspace studies. The paper defines the theoretical model that can be used to estimate the capacity of various vertiport configurations. The theoretical model provides an understanding of the conditions that can lead to either a parking space-limited or a vertipad-limited vertiport. Examples of potential throughput for some vertiport configurations are provided using both a queueing approach as well as a simulated UAM demand scenario. The study demonstrated that a first-come, first-served scheduling approach can have inefficiencies in the use of the vertiport resources. The inefficiencies can increase as the number of resources increases. Nonetheless, 80% or better peak throughput to capacity ratio was observed for most vertiport configurations.

UAM↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Feasibility Study for Remote Psychoacoustic Testing of Human Response to Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Noise

NASA will remotely administer a psychoacoustic test in late summer of 2022 as the first of two phases of a cooperative Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicle noise human response study. This study relies on the cooperation of multiple government agencies, academia, and industry to assemble a wide range of UAM vehicle sounds. This database of sounds will be used to create a rich database of human response to UAM noise that would be challenging for a single organization to acquire. The development of the remote test method to study human response to aviation noise was prompted by the novel coronavirus pandemic. The feasibility portion of the study described in this work will demonstrate and refine the remote test method for use in the implementation phase. This paper details the method for remotely administering the psychoacoustic test and the sound stimuli to be used in the Feasibility Test. Comparisons of annoyance response data from previous in-person tests will be used to demonstrate the viability of the remote test method. The paper also describes an effort to determine if providing a contextual cue to test subjects influences the annoyance response.

UAM Vehicle Noise Human Response Study↗