Project results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes.

• Environment: the proposed solutions should have no negative impact on the environment (i.e. in terms of emissions, noise and/or local air quality) or on the potential improvement of the aviation environmental footprint;
• Capacity: U-space shall not negatively affect the capacity of the ATM system and will enable additional system capacity by enabling large volumes of unmanned aircraft to access the airspace;
• Passenger experience: U-space will open the way to new services (delivery, inspection, security, etc.) that will increase the wellbeing of European citizens. Particular attention must, however, be paid to safeguarding privacy and ensuring social acceptance;
• Safety: the proposed solutions are expected to maintain at least the same level of safety as the current ATM system;
• Security: the proposed solutions are expected to maintain at least the same level of security as the current ATM system;
• Cost-efficiency: the proposed solutions are expected to reduce the operation costs of unmanned aircraft.

The Digital European Sky vision includes the seamless integration of U-space with the ATM system to ensure safe and fair access to airspace for all airspace users, including innovative air mobility (IAM^[1]) flights departing from airports. The challenge is to define and develop breakthrough solutions that will enable U-space to provide the means to manage safely and efficiently high-density traffic at low altitudes involving heterogeneous vehicles (small unmanned aerial vehicles, electric vertical take-off and landing – eVTOLs - and conventional manned aircraft), including operations over populated areas and within controlled airspace. Research aims at developing solutions that will support the seamless integration of U-space with the ATM system to ensure safe and fair access to airspace for all airspace users, including UAM flights departing from airports.

The SESAR 3 JU has identified the following innovative research elements that could be used to meet the challenge described above and achieve the expected outcomes. The list is not intended to be prescriptive; proposals for work on areas other than those listed below are welcome, provided they include adequate background and justification to ensure clear traceability with the R&I needs set out in the SRIA for the U-space and UAM flagship:

• U-Space as accelerator of evolution of ATM. This element explores whether U-space can be an accelerator of the ATM innovation life cycle, facilitating faster, lower-risk adoption of new technologies or approaches (automation, artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), cloud, ML Ops, etc.). This could include, for example, the use of U-space communication solutions for air–ground communications on the airport surface (to free up the very high frequency (VHF) spectrum for use in the air), adaptation of U-space automation concepts to manned aviation (e.g., advanced automation). In terms of the evolution of ATM, the aim will be to exploit the potential use of U-space technologies and concepts for manned aviation, with a focus on exploring the potential applicability of advanced U-space services to uncontrolled airspace, in particular Class G airspace. Applications to higher airspace operations (HAOs) are also within the scope of this element (R&I need: transfer of U-space automation technology to ATM).
• Integrated CONOPS U-space / ATM (R&I need: enable UAM). The research shall focus on:
  • The development of an integrated U-space / ATM CONOPS;
  • The evolution of CORUS CONOPS on U-space towards version 5.0 (research shall take into consideration the output of project CORUS-XUAM);
  • Provide a full U-space / IAM^[1] roadmap from ER to deployment and elaboration of key pending R&D needs to be addressed in the different pillars of the R&I pipeline.
• Urban airspace evolution. The largest concentration of drones is expected over populated areas, but these will not be drone-only areas: manned flights will still need to operate like they do today (e.g., security forces, emergency services, etc.); many of the manned missions over urban areas require flexibility, loitering, etc. and are often of high priority. The future scenarios will combine manned aircraft and small drones in the same mission (e.g., events, emergency management, etc.). In addition, people-carrying eVTOLs, initially with an on-board or remote pilot and in the future autonomous, will also be introduced in the urban airspace. In the current environment, manned flights over urban areas are typically operated under VFR or special VFR rules; this set-up provides the flexibility required by their typical mission profiles, but if unchanged would be very limiting towards drone-manned aviation airspace sharing. The objective of the research is to investigate potential solutions to introduce drones in the urban environment while still allowing flexibility for manned aircraft and drones as required by the typical urban mission profiles. Solutions may include digital flight rules (to be developed) and/or the dynamic creation of corridors/reserved areas when required by the mission, with the definition of containment requirements. It is expected the research to address in particular the concept of 2D containment for VFR aircraft, considering the applicability of RNP-like navigation specifications for VFR aircraft or the development of specific navigation requirements for VFR aircraft, that potentially combine visual references with on-board instrument support. The research should aim at developing a scalable concept and deepen into its applicability at a small scale (a few drones and manned aircraft flying typical missions in the same area, representative of the initial demand). The research may cover related urban-specific technical issues such as, inter-alia, C2 performance, GNSS performance and the potential areas with a microclimate that are often found in heavily built-up areas. Proposals should provide evidence that the applicants are familiar with the existing literature (e.g., previous SESAR research in this area, in particular PJ.34 project AURA research on ATM/U-space integration, previous SESAR U-space demonstrations, etc.) and existing standards (e.g., PBN/RNP) and describe how their proposed work would address the outstanding research challenges (R&I need: enable UAM).
• Cooperative operations between drones. This research element explores operations where several drones need to operate cooperatively, such as drone swarming, formation flying, etc. that could involve the coordination of several flight plans as well as their dynamic evolution. One example is the in-flight battery replacement (including fast charging) for electrical drones. Electrical aircraft may be the alternative for the aviation in a future where a key objective is to reduce emissions and noise. Batteries for aeronautical propulsion must evolve to accomplish with low weight, spatial restrictions, safety, reliability and environmental protection requirements. However, the low specific energy of batteries compared to the energy density of kerosene means reduced time and distance flown before the electric batteries run out and need to be replaced. In-flight battery replacement has been proposed as a way to address this limitation. Research can model the flight missions with in-flight battery replacement and investigate the U-space concepts that might be needed to support these operations. The research covers the integration of these missions in the U-space ecosystem. Drone design and battery design are outside of scope; projects shall use drones/drone models developed prior to the start of the project; however, the development of U-space systems and the integration of new drone models/drone mission models into the U-space systems or simulators are in scope (R&I need: develop advanced U-space services).
• Improving risk modelling in U-space. Research activities shall develop more accurate air-risk and ground-risk models (e.g., more accurate estimation of the severity of an aircraft crashing on the ground due either to a direct impact or to a mid-air collision) to better understand the link between the TLS and the subsequent impact e.g., frequency of fatalities, economic impact, reputational impact, etc. The scope may include the link to potential models for insurance policies. Research should consider different scenarios and variables (e.g., variable demand, etc.) and take into account also vertiports and, particularly, vertiports with more than one FATO and frequent operations. Research shall apply SORA methodology (R&I need: U-space safety assurance).
• Integration of air vehicles and personal air vehicles. In the future, new unmanned aircraft systems and personal air vehicles will fly long range and at higher altitudes to feed airports. This research will investigate the necessary seamless integration of those personal air vehicles into a more automated ATM (R&I need: ATM/U-space integration).
• ATM/U-Space/UAM performance interdependency and trade-offs. U-Space services may have an impact in ATM performance results, presenting the need to explore potential trade-offs between different key performance areas / indicators. Research shall explore the interdependencies between the ATM and U-space/UAM performance framework, analyse interdependencies between these environments and potential trade-offs to facilitate the deployment of U-space/UAM new services (R&I need: ATM/U-space integration).
• Multi-domain scenario generation service for U-space. Research aims at developing a multi-domain what-if scenario generation service (air, land, surface, cybersecurity) capable of consuming and testing the services exposed from the flight plan management and drone fleet control platforms and being able to generate different load situations, emergencies or simulation of different scenarios in real time, such as:
  • The registration of fleets, drones, users and consumption of all services enabled for this purpose;
  • The whole process of requesting flight plans with different cases in order to validate the platform in all the allowed use cases;
  • Simulation and generation of different scenarios of thousands of drones in operation that consume in real time the position and the intersection services between drones and geofences for the drones control platform;
  • Generation of what-if scenarios where drones perform anomalous behaviours e.g. navigate outside the authorized corridor in the flight plan, enter in forbidden geofence, generate UAS with risk of collision with other drones etc.;
  • Creation of different emergency situations affecting drones with authorized flight plans, both before starting the flight and during the flight, so that the systems and communication services, and the warning and flight plans modification services are exposed to stress tests for the involved flees and scenarios, in order to stress the control systems and services in real time.

(R&I need: Support the development of the U-space regulatory framework and required standards).

[1] As per the EU Drone Strategy 2.0, IAM includes UAM, Regional Air Mobility and International Air Mobility.

[2] As per the EU Drone Strategy 2.0, IAM includes UAM, Regional Air Mobility and International Air Mobility.