CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR EUROPEAN U-SPACE SERVICES - EXTENSION FOR URBAN AIR MOBILITY

Project Information

CORUS-XUAM

Grant agreement ID: 101017682

DOI

10.3030/101017682

Project closed

EC signature date 16 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 30 April 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 6 621 104,71

EU contribution

€ 3 999 389,00

Coordinated by

EUROCONTROL - EUROPEAN ORGANISATION FOR THE SAFETY OF AIR NAVIGATION
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CORUS-XUAM (CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS FOR EUROPEAN U-SPACE SERVICES - EXTENSION FOR URBAN AIR MOBILITY)

Reporting period: 2022-01-01 to 2023-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

CORUS-XUAM is a 24-month project aiming to produce an extension of the U-space ConOps to support integrated Urban Air Mobility (UAM) flight operations as well as demonstrate how U-space services and solutions could be implemented with current technologies, through 6 Very Large Demonstrations (VLD) campaigns in seven different European locations.
UAM operations are promising better, more sustainable transport technologies and models to improve commute times and accelerate the transport of goods across towns and urban environments.
In order to enable U-space UAM operations CORUS-XUAM aims to identify and demonstrate solutions that allow all airspace users (unmanned and manned) to operate safely, securely, sustainably and efficiently in a controlled and fully integrated airspace.
The 4 main objectives are:
1. Objective 1: “Using early versions of end-user systems, test mature and validated operational U-space concepts and services, in the context of UAM, that address representative environments, diverse types of operation, link with urban transport and infrastructure and Comprehensive traffic mix ”.
2. Objective 2: “Refine U-space services and solutions specifically relying on a high level of digitalisation and automation of functions enabling safe, secure, sustainable and fully integrated UAM”.
3. Objective 3: “Extend U-space CONOPS to address the specificities of Urban Air Mobility
4. Objective 4: “Boost the use of U-space capabilities and services in Urban Air Mobility.”

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

CORUS-XUAM has concluded successfully the six demonstration activities in seven different countries, testing and proving the performance of a set of U-space services for Urban Air Mobility in different scenarios and contributing to de‐risk the rapid deployment of U‐space foundation and initial (U1 & U2) and advanced (U3) services.
These results of the demonstrations have allowed the production of a Concept of Operations for Urban Air Mobility, a reference at European level.
CORUS-XUAM has addressed many representative environments, types of operations, links with urban transport and infrastructures and target traffic mix. Qualitative and quantitative performance indicators have been defined and measured during the exercise executions and later analysis against the performance expectations set. Finally, a set of operational and technical requirements for safe UAM operations have been produced.
Several of the CORUS-XUAM demonstrations have taken place in controlled airspace, which has allowed to demonstrate U-space/ATM interactions.
The project has also proposed two SESAR Solutions as Concepts relying on U-space services, to ensure that the deployed U-space capabilities provided benefits. Each Solution covered a high-level concept, tackling a series of Use Cases.
Finally the project has produced operational and technical requirements for safe UAM operations based on the demonstration results.
Communications and disseminations of project results was performed through the project website and social media pages on LinkedIn and twitter.
Several papers and articles were published and presentation created to be used in event such as the EU Drone Days and the EASA meeting.
Two workshops were held with a wide base of stakeholders, allowing CORUS-XUAM to build, refine and validate its concept of operations and 6 VLDs. CORUS-XUAM also participated to a workshop organised by the SJU on the dissemination of the ConOps.
Each of the six VLDs organised one or more day of dissemination of the demonstration results.
CORUS-XUAM organised a Final Workshop in Bari, Italy, from 29 till 30 March 2023.
CORUS-XUAM also supported and participated to the SJU workshop on U-space research providing a presentation of the CORUS-XUAM ConOps (29th and 30th of November 2022).
The participation at targeted external events was another relevant channel for both disseminating CORUS-XUAM, its activities and results, and promoting its internal events. CORUS-XUAM project partners were present at international events and promoted the CORUS-XUAM activities to amongst others the ATM and drone community.
In order to facilitate the exploitation of the results, the CORUS-XUAM Consortium partners have shared the project results with the U-space/UAM Community Network supporting the industry and operators in the development of U-space services to enable UAM operations. CORUS-XUAM partner’s participation in the international U-space/UAM working groups and regulation/standardisation bodies have further supported the transfer of the project results to industry and relevant stakeholders.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

UAM provision of aerial mobility services in urban and suburban areas, will require many different and evolving types of air vehicles, from medium-sized aircraft to small drones, from manned vehicles through remotely piloted ones to fully automated ones, and from passenger transport through goods delivery to surveillance or inspection vehicles. The safe integration of any of these air vehicles is the challenge of the demonstrations conducted in this project.
The six demonstrations performed by the project in seven different EU countries, each with a different scenario, interacting to some degree with managed airspace, have allowed to validate the safety of a wide variety of business cases, using UAM vehicles with different performance and functionalities.
In line with the call challenge, the CORUS-XUAM consortium recognises that an advanced set of U-space services are required to support UAM operations taking place in connection with airports or other city hubs, potentially entering shared airspace where some of them may receive ATC services. The project demonstrations findings have allowed the development of the CORUS-XUAM ConOps, an integrated and a fully accepted U-space ConOps for UAM, with a reference architecture precisely describing the advanced services and providing the foundation upon which the required technical and infrastructure developments can be better defined. The final objective is the success of the incipient drone and UAM market, considering the main stakeholders interested (ANSP, USP, smart cities, industry, citizens, airport operators), to achieve its full potential without compromising the current high level of air transport safety.

The project results are expected to have positive impacts on the following aspects:

• Development of aerial operating procedures in urban areas (Safety)
• Increase of situational awareness(Safety)
• Improved governance of U-space (Safety)
• Development of recommendations for regulation and standardisation (Safety)
• Support the technical and infrastructure deployments in cities (Safety, Market)
• Contribute to a fair access to the airspace (Capacity and Efficiency)
• Contribute to transport innovation (Market)
• Improvement of the urban mobility and its carbon and noise footprint (Environment)
• Emergency situations management (Safety and Social)
• New jobs perspectives, services and elements for economic grow (Socio-economic)
• Contribute to the use of the airspace by new stakeholders (UAM) (Access and Equity)
• New form of business aviation (Access and Equity-Market)

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