Optimal Siting of Sub-Urban Air Mobility (sUAM) Ground Architectures using Network Flow Formulation

Abstract

Air Mobility (AM) operating models have steadily made their way into public conscience over the past decade due to increased research activity pioneered by large technology corporations such as Uber and Amazon. Estimates concur that there are around 250 startup businesses with 22 major players working on such technologies with over $25 billion dollars in venture capital funding in 2017[1]. Given the meteoric rise of Air Mobility as one of the leading 21 st century disruptive technologies, research effort across the spectrum of functions that can make AM concepts a reality are burgeoning -ranging from vehicle design to operations planning. More specifically, research efforts within the operations planning space deal with service route identification, ground infrastructure (such as charging stations and ports) placement and others. To this effect, the present study seeks to evaluate the feasibility and tractability of a formalized optimization method towards the siting of "vertiports" -ground infrastructure that aids the embarkation and disembarkation of AM commuters -as applied to a Sub-Urban Air Mobility (sUAM) operating model. Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) formulations offer qualified benefits over other heuristic methods and the authors are confident of their relative performance given the proven track record of such methods in solving generalized facility loca-

Urban Air Mobility: Systematic Review of Scientific Publications and Regulations for Vertiport Design and Operations

“…"Ground infrastructure and planning decisions at this stage of the project development carry significant project risk, and hence, decision makers and stakeholders need to be able to make well-considered business and operations decisions." [81] According to [82], the following factors make a location favorable for placing UAM ground infrastructure: less densely built-up cities with substantial amount of free and undeveloped land; access to water like lakes and rivers; no existing strong and efficient public transportation network; large commercial airport located nearby. Furthermore, a city's climate degrades initial UAM operations if reduced visibility, wind and icy conditions are faced frequently.…”

“…Air mobility operations may be differentiated between urban air mobility inside city limits, sub-urban air mobility connecting city and surrounding metropolitan areas (trip exceeds 20 miles (32 km)), and regional air mobility providing city to city transport [81]. Depending on the operation type, different repercussions on vertiport location, size, resource provision and operating concept may be expected.…”

“…Developing theoretically a vertiport network may consider "uncapacitated" and "capacitated" facilities. The use of "uncapacitated" facilities makes sure that individual vertiports are not causing any operational bottlenecks during analysis and, therefore, are able to serve unlimited demand (see e.g., [81]). Instead, "capacitated" vertiports only serve limited demand (see e.g., [81,83]).…”

Model of Third-Party Risk Index for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery in Urban Environment

“…In recent years, the theoretical research on UAVs has mainly focused on path planning and site selection [5,6], urban air mobility (UAM) [7][8][9], and the various constraints faced by the construction of UAM systems [10,11] and route planning in a low-altitude airspace [12]. For example: Venkatesh [5] proposed a new method based on the linear programming problem model, which aims to find the best route for vehicles carrying UAVs. Hong [13] considered the drone's limited range and obstacles within the required range, and proposed a new location model, which used optimization methods to design the network of site locations and delivery routes to help drones extend their coverage to a greater extent.…”

Vertiport Selection in Hybrid Air-Ground Transportation Networks via Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints

“…By adding an air transportation network supported by the vertiportswhere the travelers embark and disembark the aircraftto the existing ground transportation network, UAM has the potential to alleviate the ground traffic congestion. The latter has become a growing concern among travelers and transportation authorities alike [3].…”