WT AWARD 2018 - SUSTAINABILITY

Project Vahana

Airbus

Urban air mobility with self- flying vehicle system for individual passenger and cargo transport has sense-and-avoid function. This function provides for aircraft to detect obstacles, classify obstacle types, identify collision risks, find strategy to avoid collision, change the trajectory and execute avoidance path, and return to the original path. The self-piloted system relies on a wide range of sensors and software, many of which are currently being developed for the automotive industry. It is required 3D sensor coverage around the vehicle to provide situational awareness, and it is need to see obstacles about 2 km away (ca. 1.2 miles). Transport service providers are one target group for such vehicles. The system could operate similarly to car-sharing applications.