Development and validation of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) for conflict management in the U-space

Abstract

[EN] The UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) is defined as a set of procedures, tools and services that aims to support the integration and coordination of drones (UAS) with other airspace users in a safe and efficient manner. The implementation of the UTM system in the European Union is known as U-space. In this document the concept of operations (ConOps) for the separation management of U-space is described, with the objective of reducing the number of conflicts to an acceptable level in security terms. This concept of operations is elaborated inside BUBBLES, an investigation project coordinated by the SNA (Sistemas de Navegación Aérea) group inside the ITACA institute of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). In first place, the approaches from Europe and EEUU are summarized in order to obtain a global vision of the UTM/U-space, focused on the collision model and the proposed services. Secondly, the key points of the BUBBLES project are highlighted, and the simulation tool used to validate its ConOps is described. After that, a scenario is defined with the purpose of analysing the viability of the U-space implementation on a shortmedium time period in a city like Valencia, founded on market research and all the possible applications of UAS in interurban areas. Several simulations will be launched over this scenario, each one with different inputs in order to analyse how the results are affected in terms of mortality rate and security, navigation errors and different airspace distributions (layered distribution vs non-stratified airspace and homogeneous vs heterogeneous flight layers). The results obtained from this scenario will be compared to gathered values regarding other transport ways with the end of settling the benefits of the U-space implementation and drones use in cities, based on citizens security, annual mortality rates and environmental care factors.

[ES] El U-space es un conjunto de servicios basados en sistemas digitales altamente automatizados que soportará la operación de un gran número de aeronaves no tripuladas en el el espacio aéreo europeo (SES), especialmente en el de muy bajo nivel o VLL. La Comisión Europea encomendó a la SESAR Joint Undertaking el desarrollo de los servicios U-space. Dado que la seguridad es esencial en las operaciones aéreas, se debe determinar, mediante un concepto de operaciones, cómo se deben utilizar los servicios U-space y las capacidades embarcadas (como los sistemas de Detect and Avoid) para evitar colisiones entre drones y entre estos y aeronaves tripuladas. El concepto de operaciones tendrá en cuenta las propuestas desarrolladas en otras áreas relevantes (especialmente el modelo desarrollado por la NASA/FAA) y será validado mediante simulaciones realizadas con simuladores disponibles en el grupo de investigación SNA.