In recent years, metropolitan cities have experienced a substantial increase in traffic congestion due to the growing urban population as well as the rise in truck traffic because of the rapid development in the e-commerce industry, same-day deliveries, and innovation in technology. Traffic congestion not only leads to accidents, stress, and vehicle operating cost but is also a major cause of climate change, air pollution, a loss in economic output, jobs, and revenues for businesses across different sectors. In an attempt to achieve a cost-efficient, sustainable and faster transportation alternative, several companies are in the process of exploring beyond ground transportation and leveraging the aviation industry using electric drones and air taxis. These advanced air mobility (AAM) technologies have the potential to shape the future transportation sector because they are sustainable and can even operate on existing parking garages and building rooftops. Therefore, it is necessary to train students in AAM design and operations in order to prepare the future scientific workforce for effectively handling next-generation transportation systems.
AAM services are not only gaining popularity in the US but also worldwide. Specifically, since India is the second most populous country in the world, with nearly 1.38 billion people, extensive state-of-the-art research is being conducted in India to alleviate traffic congestion using emerging technologies. Hence, our goal is to develop an IRES site with US-India partnership for undergraduate students (particularly URM, women, and first-generation students) who currently lack the opportunity to pursue creative and transformative research in AAM operations.
This IRES program will instigate students’ research interest in transformative, state-of-the-art research projects, such as (i) establishing air taxi and drone hubs in urban areas using unsupervised machine learning methods, (ii) allocation of AAM vehicles to customers using simulation-based optimization models, (iii) environmentally aware hybrid truck-drone-robot technology for last-mile delivery operations. The projects discussed in this proposal will enable the development of digital three-dimensional airspace technologies for next-generation transportation and logistics.
