Abstract

Low-altitude aircraft is being developed as a new mode of urban transport; consequently, the penetration of low-altitude passenger and delivery aircraft into the urban airspace is inevitable in the near future. This will give rise to new urban air transport systems, called low-altitude air city transport (LAAT) systems. LAAT systems will include aircraft transferring passengers and goods in urban areas, leading to a new era of urban air mobility. 
Given the main operational differences between conventional airplane and LAAT systems, future aircraft cannot be managed by the current aircraft management schemes, which are mainly operated by human and limited by large safety concerns. The new urban traffic management system will require advanced technology and communication systems, and most importantly they need to be managed and operate optimally. Hence, the main research goal is to develop traffic flow and feedback control theories for LAAT systems.
Inspired by controlled urban road networks, the research aims to enhance the modeling of Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) for LAAT systems and to develop a collective and aggregate aircraft traffic flow model. Then based on the developed model, the next steps are to analyze different control structures and to develop different control policies motivated by a feedback flow control approach to manage and control the traffic flow in the airspace more efficiently. 

*Part of the LAAT-Flow Project.