The Effects of Urban Settings on Airﬂow Characteristics for Urban Air Mobility Applications

labbad, Maryam Al

doi:10.22215/etd/2021-14678

Cited by 3 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This is exemplified by data point 30 for the west-south-west wind direction and points 29, 32, and 35 for the south wind direction. This could indicate the presence of red zones [51] when it comes to safe operations of UAT. More locations in the urban environment should be investigated in future research to identify potential red zones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The ADRC flight controller was able to further reduce the lateral accelerations to below the minimum discomfort levels. With the data points that were used to create the urban airflow disturbances, it was observed that certain locations in the urban airspace may experience higher turbulence regardless of incoming wind direction, thereby indicating the presence of red zones [51]. The red zones could be different for various types of operations, such as organ delivery, light cargo, or passenger transportation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Modelling and Control of an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Subject to Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

McKercher,

Khouli,

Wall

et al. 2024

Aerospace

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Urban air mobility is expected to play a role in improving transportation of people and goods in growing urban areas while contributing to sustainable urban growth and zero-emissions future aviation. The research presented herein computationally investigated the performance of control laws for a generic Urban Air Taxi (UAT) subjected to empirically-developed urban airflow disturbances. This involved developing a representative flight dynamics model of a UAT in steady level cruise flight with an inner-loop autopilot. Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control laws were implemented to investigate the controlled and uncontrolled acceleration responses and compare them to the acceleration limits in ISO 2631. Using a linear flight dynamics model, ADRC demonstrated improved performance over PID control with equal initial tuning effort. PID was able to reduce passenger accelerations to unharmful, though still uncomfortable, levels while ADRC further reduced the lateral accelerations to comfortable levels.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling and Control of an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Subject to Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

McKercher,

Khouli,

Wall

et al. 2024

Aerospace

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Within the research group where the work presented in this thesis was conducted, a colleague completing a Masters thesis conducted an experimental investigation into Urban Airflow considering UAM [5]. This involved performing wind tunnel tests with a scale model of a urban centre, Toronto was used.…”

Section: Experimental and Computational Urban Air-flow Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The empirical airflow data were collected for a scaled urban setting extracted from downtown Toronto. The scale model was subjected to various wind directions with wind velocity and turbulence profiles that are similar to the ones encountered in an urban environment [5]. The data are presented as a Power-Spectral Density (PSD) plot in the u, v, and w directions for a specific location in the city.…”

Section: Urban Air Flow Disturbancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An inner-loop flight controller was designed using classical Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control and Active Disturbance Rejection Control and the performance of each controller was compared while the aircraft model was perturbed. The turbulent conditions corresponding to urban airflow were created using experimental data collected during an investigation of urban airflow [5]. The experimental urban airflow data were combined with the UAT dynamic model and the controller, and was simulated using MATLAB's Simulink to determine if ADRC would be a suitable controller for UAM operations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Modelling, Flight Dynamics and Inner-Loop Control of an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Subject to Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

McKercher¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Advanced Air Mobility in general, and Urban Air Mobility in particular, are expected to play a significant role in improving transportation of people and goods in increasingly growing urban centres while contributing to reduction in emissions and reaching the goal of sustainable urban growth. The goal of this work was to investigate the performance of a novel controller as an autopilot for a generic aircraft operating in urban airflow. In this investigation, the extraction of geometric, inertial and aerodynamic properties of a generic urban air taxi, similar in design to the Bell Nexus 4EX, was carried out. Subsequently the properties were used as a basis for the development of a linearized flight dynamics numerical model of the aircraft. Flights about a trimmed condition at cruising speed were simulated including cases where the urban air taxi was immersed in empirically-developed urban airflow disturbances. The open-loop response of the urban air taxi was assessed and classical proportional-integral-derivative and Active Disturbance Rejection Control inner-loop controllers were developed. The performance of the controllers in presence of the aforementioned urban airflow disturbance were then examined and compared. Active Disturbance Rejection Control was shown to perform similarly to proportional-integral-derivative control in the flight of the aircraft immersed in a representative urban airflow environment. Future investigations were recommended to increase the model fidelity to understand how unsteady aerodynamics would affect the aircraft motion and that real world considerations be included to further test Active Disturbance Rejection Control.I would also like to acknowledge Maryam Al Labbad for providing support and assistance when working with the data that she collected and inviting me to observe the wind tunnel testing. The data was a crucial part of the project and observing the wind tunnel tests was invaluable in gaining knowledge about the urban airflow environment.

show abstract

Analysis of Urban Air Taxi Inner Loop Controller Architectures Subject to Noisy Inertial Measurement Unit Input while Immersed in Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

Maksoud

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Interest in designing and operating commercial Urban Air Taxis (UAT) around the world has grown exponentially over the last decade. One of the many challenges that are unique to UATs is the urban airflow environment in which they are envisaged to operate in. The presence of high-rise buildings creates a highly turbulent urban airflow environment which requires UATs operating within it to be equipped with highly robust inner-loop controllers to maintain steady level flight. This study investigates the effect of Angular Random Walk (ARW) noise in four grades of Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) on the inner loop flight controller's ability to maintain steady level flight. Three types of control schema are examined, namely classical Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control, Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC), and Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control (LADRC). Each control schema has a different method of overcoming ARW noise found in the IMU readings which impacts its performance. A total of three metrics are used to compare the performance of the different controllers: 1) command tracking performance; 2) control surface deflections; and 3) passenger comfort. The results of this study show promising potential for using ADRC-based control architecture in UAT inner-loop control applications by exhibting superior command tracking performance, lower control surface deflections, and increased passenger comfort compared to PID. It also provides insights to regulatory authorites and UAT manufacturers of the importance of accounting for IMU sensor noise and recommended IMU grades to be used in UAT applications. Finally, iv I would like to thank my family for their patience and support while I completed this work. To my parents who constantly supported my endeavor to complete this work, my wife who took on the extra load to free up my time, my brother who would make the 5-hour drive to Ottawa to help out with chores when deadlines were approaching, thank you for all you have done for me. To my four young children who never got bored of asking me whether I was done so I could play, I can now say that my work here is done and I now have time to play. It is my hope that my endeavor in completing this work serves as a source of motivation to you in the future that with dedication, determination and the right support you can achieve what may at first glance appear to be too difficult and out of reach. A special thank you to my co-supervisors Prof. Khouli and Prof. Atia for your constant support, motivation and patience when things weren't going in the right direction. Thank you to Dr. Wall and the extended research team at the NRC, RWDI and RMC for the opportunity to present my progress and the usefull feedback you provided throughout this work.

show abstract

The Effects of Urban Settings on Airﬂow Characteristics for Urban Air Mobility Applications

Cited by 3 publications

References 46 publications

Modelling and Control of an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Subject to Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

Modelling and Control of an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Subject to Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

Modelling, Flight Dynamics and Inner-Loop Control of an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Subject to Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

Analysis of Urban Air Taxi Inner Loop Controller Architectures Subject to Noisy Inertial Measurement Unit Input while Immersed in Empirically-Developed Urban Airflow Disturbances

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About