Societal Demand & Technology Review (D1.1)

Abstract

This document describes the context required to generate the scenarios for the batch simulations. It is based on a review of literature on: - Demographics & urbanisation - Transport & Energy - UAVs (suitable for the urban environment) - Personal Air vehicles (as suitable for the urban environment) - Communication, Navigation & Surveillance system requirements - Infrastructure Requirements The focus is on the city 50+ years into the future. The current status and trends of the development of urbanisation and mobility will be extrapolated to the future. This gives the estimate for the future demand, both qualitatively (which applications) and quantitatively. For UAVs there already are vehicles available, which can be used for urban cargo transport. A review of existing (proto)types has been performed. Based on the expected demand and expected technological advances, the future cargo UAV and its application will be described. A review of on-going developments on personal air transport vehicles will give an indication of the expected type(s) of the vehicles, which are most likely to reach the consumer market in high numbers. Based on the current prototypes and their feasibility, the performance characteristics of the future personal air vehicles can be estimated. Navigation and surveillance in an urban environment is a challenge. Which systems and levels of automation are foreseen will be described in chapter 4 as this has an impact on the interaction between the vehicles. This interaction is an important ingredient of the batch simulations. The required infrastructure refers to both the sites for take-off & landing as well as to the ground-based systems required for Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management.