Scientists are working in the City-ATM project on counterparts to traffic lights, priority and stop signs in urban, largely uncontrolled airspace up to 760 meters above ground. The integration of unmanned aircraft into traffic with larger aircraft has long been considered a challenge. Observers expect that the use of quadrocopters, unmanned helicopters and larger fixed-wing aircraft will increase significantly in the next few years, especially over larger cities.

Yes Now it is no longer a pure science fiction scenario, which Dagi Geister from the Institute for Flight Guidance at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) describes: “A parcel drone delivers a consignment of goods in the front yard of a single-family house. Upstairs, autonomous air taxis bring commuters to their workplaces in the city. Small unmanned aerial vehicles hover over the intersections of the city center. ” In order to ensure safe and efficient operation between old and new road users in the divided urban sky, many boundary conditions would have to be observed and clarified.

With the City- ATM, the institutions and companies involved want to develop a concept for future air traffic management (ATM). In the project, which has been running since 2018, several DLR institutes are working with partners such as NXP, FlyNex, Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS), Kopterkraft, Auterion, the Center for Applied Aviation Research and the Society for Aviation Informatics together.

Drone detects fire Tested in autumn the participants at the National Test Center for Unmanned Aviation Systems in Cochstedt, for the first time, whether and how several drones can be safely handled in sudden dangers. The researchers simulated a fire with smoke bombs. The swath was discovered by a special drone for authorities and organizations with security tasks (BoS), which is operated by the DLR Institute for Optical Sensor Systems.

After the source of danger was identified, the operator of the BoS drone created a no-fly zone around the “fire” and uploaded this information to a central FlyNex server to which the ground station was also connected. The employees there have entered the red zone in the internal database, in which the local air traffic from DFS has already been entered. Alexander Kuenz from the DLR Institute of Flight Guidance explains: “Among other things, this enabled conflict detection and avoidance with the controlled drones.”

The ground station meanwhile shared the coordinates of the danger zone with the three quadrocopters in the air With. According to Kuenz, they independently recognized whether they were near the danger zone. If so, they immediately held their positions and waited for new instructions from the control center. The scientists were then able to guide the drones around the prohibited zone.

Drones in a complex environment The flight systems communicated via D2X -Funk (Drone2X) based on the standard 760. 11 p with the ground station. D2X is based on the WLAN specification for “Car to Car Communication” (C2X). Kuenz rates the trials overall as “successful and very promising”.

The airspace of the future is being explored (8 images) Admission the smoke flare and geofence illustration. (Image: DLR) 2019 the researchers had undertaken another experiment at the Köhlbrand Bridge in Hamburg. They wanted to show how the cooperation and communication of drones in the complex environment of a busy urban artery already works over water, says Kuenz. It was also able to “successfully demonstrate the exemplary detection of fine cracks”. The ship and road traffic continued during this time.

City-ATM runs until the end 2021 . In the next larger action, some physical drones are to be used in a confusing, largely virtual traffic scenario with about 100 more unmanned flight systems are moved. They should be guided both from the ground and autonomously on board. Until then, the scientists want to equip the devices with further special technology to be on the safe side.

(anw)