Towards the integration of aerial transportation in urban settings

Abstract

The idea of flying has always fascinated mankind. A century ago it became a reality when in 1914 the first commercial flight was offered. In recent times, many entities are planning, developing and testing aerial vehicles and systems that will move goods and people in urban scenarios. Consequently, the need to develop appropriate planning tools for this kind of transportation is needed. This paper presents some of the important research gaps that must be addressed before this emerging transportation mode can be integrated into the current transportation system. Close collaboration between transport demand modeling, network design and physical system development is considered to be of high importance in order to have reliable, efficient and safe integration of aerial vehicles in the urban setting. As a consequence, coordination between researchers and stakeholders is necessary to reach these goals. In this paper, concepts that incorporate these research areas and their interaction, for integrating and simulating on a large scale of both manned and unmanned aerial vehicles are proposed.