The development of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in urban areas implies the implementation of means to ensure that cohabitation with all airspace users is done in complete safety. This is the mission of the TindAIR project, coordinated by Innov’ATM and Sophie Althabegoity and grouping together a group of companies and research laboratories from France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom under the aegis of the SESAR programme (Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research).
The TindAIR project will result in a series of large-scale demonstrations on urban air mobility (UAM), with a focus on conflict management between different types of flying platforms.
New generation aircraft with innovative propulsion are coming to the market with increasingly automated and remotely piloted functions, such as flying taxis and drones. These will aim to meet the demand for alternative modes of transport in large cities while responding to the challenges of reducing noise pollution and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. These new aerial vehicles will have to be safely integrated into the sky by air traffic control while coexisting with manned aviation.
Based on this observation, the SESAR programme wished to integrate the European concept of “U-space” (a set of decentralised services aimed at integrating UAVs into the airspace and allowing them to cohabit with manned aircraft) into its research and innovation activities in order to develop new operational concepts, based on existing and new technologies, for the safe and secure integration of UAVs.
Within the framework of this programme, TindAIR is one of the very large-scale demonstration projects which aims to show that the acceptance of this new “traffic” in an urban environment is possible while ensuring the safety and protection of people and property. In particular, the objective is to show how this new and complex environment can be safely integrated with existing manned aviation and air traffic control.
In order to achieve this objective, the TindAIR consortium will organise a series of demonstrations covering representative and operational use cases featuring a combination of manned and unmanned aircraft. The operational scenarios will address existing urban needs such as medical, passenger and cargo transport, with consideration of extreme cases such as sector saturation and emergency landing. The tests will use aircraft of different types, capabilities and levels of automation, all sharing the same airspace.
Scheduled for 2022, the TindAIR demonstrations will take place in the peri-urban/urban areas of French cities such as Toulouse and Bordeaux, and will focus on strategic and tactical assistance for conflict detection and resolution. The objective will be to validate the concepts of operation and the target architecture for the conflict detection and resolution function for all airspace users.
The solution will provide validated U-space services to future users of these urban air mobility modes (UAM). This project is also an opportunity to demonstrate the operations of a tactical conflict resolution service module that embeds an artificial intelligence algorithm, which can be integrated into future U-space deployments. The TindAIR consortium is looking forward to a successful cooperation with a perfect representation of innovative SMEs, research laboratories, air taxi designers and industrial providers coordinated by Innov’ATM, a French company, renowned specialist in artificial intelligence for UAV air traffic management but also in anti-drone.
TindAIR is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (approval no. 101017677), under the call for projects: SESAR-VLD2-03-2020 “U-Space capabilities and services for urban air mobility”.
All the members of the TindAIR consortium are proud to participate in this ambitious, pragmatic and innovative project aiming at conducting large-scale experiments, to allow the emergence of tomorrow’s transport modes and industries.
The consortium includes the following companies:
– Coordinator: Innov’ATM, France.
– ONERA (Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales), France.
– Pildo Consulting SL, Spain.
– ISSNOVA (Institute for Sustainable Society and Innovation), Italy.
– Rockwell Collins France SAS, France.
– Skyports Limited, United Kingdom.
– CIRA (Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali SCPA), Italy.
– Aerospace Valley, France.
– Fundacion TECNALIA Research & Innovation, Spain.
– Skybirdsview, France.
– APSYS, an AIRBUS company, France.
Translated from Mobilité aérienne urbaine : Lancement de TindAIR, le nouveau projet européen de démonstrations à grande échelle
