Rideshare services like Uber and Lyft in recent years have progressively added features for consumers to personalize their transportation — the ability to request certain vehicle models, schedule future pick-ups, and even request a driverless car from Waymo. Now, researchers in Baylor University’s Advanced Vehicle Intelligence and Autonomy (AVIA) Laboratory are imagining a new future for transportation: flying autonomous vehicles.
Baylor is collaborating with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; New Mexico State University; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; the U.S. Air Force Academy; and George Washington University to bring advanced air mobility (AAM) — a new system that uses electric or hybrid aircraft to carry people and cargo through the air — to the forefront of transportation. Highly automated air taxis, delivery drones, and cargo shuttles using AAM technologies would have vertical take-off and landing ability, skipping ground-level traffic and connecting to hard-to-reach places.
Partner schools were chosen based on each university’s strengths. At Baylor, the AVIA Lab focuses on computer-based simulations to study how much energy different systems use, the infrastructural realities, and how aircraft might perform in flight. After Baylor analyzes the data, the U.S. Air Force Academy conducts flight tests and gathers additional information, which is then sent back to Baylor for further analysis. In October, the research team will meet with partner universities in Tennessee to review and discuss the results so far.
“This is the future transportation mode, and we are looking at the impact onto the ground infrastructure,” said Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering Dr. Liang Sun, who directs the AVIA Lab. “Hopefully that can give a positive impact.”
A goal of the project is to combat the loss of productivity that comes with driving time and sitting in traffic. Sun referenced data from the INRIX 2019 Global Traffic Scorecard, which found that the average American driver loses 99 hours per year to traffic congestion, time the firm valued at about $1,377 per driver and $88 billion nationwide.
“The motivation actually starts from ground transportation,” Sun said. Helicopters could ease highway congestion, he noted, “but the helicopter is relatively pricey and noisy.” Factoring in carbon emissions, he added, “we need clean-energy-powered aircraft.”
The ultimate goal of the AAM sector, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is to make air transportation safer, encourage modernization, and boost the U.S. economy. Companies, including Amazon, have already seized opportunities within the field of AAM to enhance and speed up delivery of packages and materials to urban and rural areas. Amazon Prime Air currently uses electric, autonomous drones, which can deliver packages of 5 pounds or less in as little as 30 minutes from ordering.
As these advanced flying technologies continue to develop, Sun said it is important for infrastructure planning to keep pace. Early preparation would allow stakeholders to begin developing the ground infrastructure needed to support the amount of electricity-powered aircraft researchers hope to see in the future, including airport- or bus stop-like passenger facilities; quick, high-powered charging sites; and air traffic control networks.
“The ground infrastructure is not ready to serve those vehicles in the future,” Sun said, adding that it could take up to 10 years just to update the electric grid to deliver power at the location and quantity it’s needed.
Part of Sun’s research focuses on portal siting, which evaluates potential locations for AAM infrastructure by comparing candidate sites. Variables such as real estate cost, electricity cost, and operational cost are used to determine the best areas to place the AAM ports.
Aside from energy infrastructure updates, Sun also said this project could transform the job market, boosting roles for pilots and operators. Sun said researchers also consider the supply of airline pilots available, leaning more toward autonomous operation of the vehicles, similar to Waymo, rather than pilots within each aircraft.
“The entire AAM industry is considering that in the future, we need people to work on this,” Sun said, noting that the bulk of the operation would ideally be done remotely. “If we are sitting in the office, we can operate a larger fleet during the same time.”
One of the largest concerns of the AAM field is the safety of the aircraft itself. The goal of the project is to move slowly in order to avoid as many mistakes as possible, following a crawl, walk, run paradigm in which the current project is still in the crawl phase.
“I think safety goes first,” Sun said. “No matter what, safety goes first.”
