Resilient Network Planning and Disruption Management for Urban Air Mobility Operations

Optimizing the day-of-operations UAM network planning/dispatching and responding efficiently to network disruptions are crucial, make-or-break capabilities without which UAM operator business will not be viable. Today’s methods used by airlines and car ridesharing companies will not work for UAM because UAM operations have significant differences and unique features (minimizing deadhead flights, staging aircraft offsite due to Vertiport space constraints, unique disruption events, etc.). The proposed SBIR develops the Resilient UAM Network Optimizer (RUNO), which the UAM day-of-operations planning problem as an Integer Program (IP), applies innovative constraint and objective function models to emulate unique characteristics of UAM operations, and uses a NASA-developed, open-source fast IP solver to provide optimized solutions in realistic times matching the UAM operator’s planning cycles. Since the SBIR addresses an airspace network planning for nontraditional UAM operations, it is highly relevant to Subtopic A3.04’s “Nontraditional Airspace Operations”. Phase I breaks the day-of-operations planning/dispatch problem into three inter-related sub-problems: Strategic Scheduling (weekly or monthly calculation of long-term schedules), Tactical Planning (real-time planning in response to incoming trip requests), and Disruption Management (event-driven network recovery planning). For each problem, we develop innovative customizations of the proposed IP and solve them to provide a comprehensive network planning and disruption management solution. Phase II operationalizes RUNO by integrating it with cloud-computing platforms such as NASA Digital Information Platform and ATAC SkyView Data Services. UAM operators can access RUNO as a digital service over NASA or ATAC cloud platforms to obtain benefits including increased profitability, enhanced On-Time performance, reduced operating costs, and efficient responses to network disruptions.

Integration of RUNO with ATM-X DIP platform provides a high-value digital services to UAM operators RUNO UAM network management SDSP to support AAM National Campaign live tests and ATM-X UAM Traffic Management lab simulations Integration with NASA AutoResolver to provide full end-to-end UAM network optimization Integration of RUNO with NASA’s VAMOS! will provide a complete UAM flight assessment capability which can be run as a simulation tool to assess UAM network design parameters

Day-of-operations planning/dispatch/disruption management service for UAM operators, large UAS network operators (e.g., package delivery), and smaller/regional traditional airlines Network-impact-sensitive excess Vertiport delay alerting tool Operational impact prediction app for Providers of Service for UAM (PSUs), Vertiports, and UAM maintenance personnel

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 3) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

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