User-centered Integration of Automated Air Mobility into Urban Transportation Networks

Abstract

The existing ground-based transportation network (e.g., rails, streets) has natural limits that are pre-determined by the constellation of the system itself. If these limits are reached or exceeded, the system will no longer be able to manage the existing traffic volume. In order to avoid this situation, different actions can be undertaken such as expanding the network or increasing it's efficiency. Another possible action is the exploitation of a further (third) dimension for locomotion for decoupling from the systematical limits of the existing, ground-based structures. This work addresses a currently upcoming topic: the automated air mobility. Bringing such mobility offers to reality requires work in different fields. Among others, these are especially the integration of the mobility offer into the existing transport infrastructure as well as the integration of a human user into the automated aircraft. The paper contributes to both of these fields. Initially, we analyse requirements on urban airfields and examine existing as well as possible future urban airfields. Secondly, we take a closer look at the interaction of human users and automated aircraft building on knowledge and experiences from human-computer interaction in autonomous cars. This foundation is supplemented by aspects that emerge in the field of air traffic (e.g., required off-board coordination with the air traffic management). Finally, on this basis, we develop a proposal for the human-machine-interaction in automated aircraft.