A Simulation Framework for Fast Design Space Exploration of Unmanned Air System Traffic Management Policies

TL;DR

This paper introduces MATRUS, a simulation framework that enables rapid evaluation of UAS traffic management policies, helping optimize urban airspace usage and resource planning amidst increasing sUAS operations.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel multi-agent simulation framework for fast assessment of UTM policies and their impact on traffic patterns and resource allocation in dense urban environments.

Findings

Managed traffic reduces conflict ratio compared to unmanaged scenarios.

Simulation helps identify optimal resource distribution and launch site locations.

Framework enables quick evaluation of policy impacts on flight time and communication resources.

Abstract

The number of daily small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) operations in uncontrolled low altitude airspace is expected to reach into the millions. UAS Traffic Management (UTM) is an emerging concept aiming at the safe and efficient management of such very dense traffic, but few studies are addressing the policies to accommodate such demand and the required ground infrastructure in suburban or urban environments. Searching for the optimal air traffic management policy is a combinatorial optimization problem with intractable complexity when the number of sUAS and the constraints increases. As the demands on the airspace increase and traffic patterns get complicated, it is difficult to forecast the potential low altitude airspace hotspots and the corresponding ground resource requirements. This work presents a Multi-agent Air Traffic and Resource Usage Simulation (MATRUS) framework that aims for fast evaluation of different air traffic management policies and the relationship between policy, environment and resulting traffic patterns. It can also be used as a tool to decide the resource distribution and launch site location in the planning of a next-generation smart city. As a case study, detailed comparisons are provided for the sUAS flight time, conflict ratio, cellular communication resource usage, for a managed (centrally coordinated) and unmanaged (free flight) traffic scenario.