Airspace Geofencing and Flight Planning for Low-Altitude, Urban, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Source abstract
Abstract
Airspace geofencing is a key capability for low-altitude Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM). Geofenced airspace volumes can be allocated to safely contain compatible UAS flight operations within a fly-zone (keep-in geofence) and ensure the avoidance of no-fly zones (keep-out geofences). This paper presents the application of three-dimensional flight volumization algorithms to support airspace geofence management for UTM. Layered polygon geofence volumes enclose user-input waypoint-based 3-D flight trajectories, and a family of flight trajectory solutions designed to avoid keep-out geofence volumes is proposed using computational geometry. Geofencing and path planning solutions are analyzed in an accurately mapped urban environment. Urban map data processing algorithms are presented. Monte Carlo simulations statistically validate our algorithms, and runtime statistics are tabulated. Benchmark evaluation results in a Manhattan, New York City low-altitude environment compare our geofenced dynamic path planning solutions against a fixed airway corridor design. A case study with UAS route deconfliction is presented, illustrating how the proposed geofencing pipeline supports multi-vehicle deconfliction. This paper contributes to the nascent theory and the practice of dynamic airspace geofencing in support of UTM.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Air Traffic Management and Optimization · Robotic Path Planning Algorithms · Autonomous Vehicle Technology and Safety
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Robotics Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2106, USA
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Robotics Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2106, USA
Funding
Collins Aerospace · National Aeronautics and Space Administration
References (45)
Show source-provided references
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