Aeronautics: Smart Mobility Team Participates in Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Challenge
May 2021
USRA has established a collaboration that includes NASA Ames aeronautics researchers and San Jose State University faculty and student team, to conduct research and support development of a requirements-based design for vertipads and/or vertiports for eVTOL aircraft within the UAM environment. This is aligned to NASA and FAA’s drive to address real and anticipated challenges of burgeoning eVTOL technologies and with NASA High Density Vertiplex (HDV) project. This team conducted research to support the national vision, including development of virtual environments and simulations of advanced air mobility concepts, including vertiports and collaborating on research to enhance the airfield at NASA Ames Research Center to serve as a testbed for physical advanced air mobility flight and operations testing. The purpose of the simulations and flight experiments is to test vehicles and AAM airspace providers from various companies, and to determine how cities, airports and overall infrastructure can support this type of passenger transport and cargo delivery.
In Spring 2021 four undergraduate students from San Jose State University were selected to participate in the NAMS R&D Student program. Interns Heungseok Park, Francis Sison, Brayan Mendez and Matt Marchetti participated in the national Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) challenge. The Smart Mobility Team, supported by Aeronautics mentors at USRA and NASA, worked under Challenge L to create strategies for safe and effective integration of automated and connected vehicles into the complex airport operations environment. The team's proposal consisted of developing a schematic design of a high density vertical vertiplex. The goal of this vertiplex was to decrease surface footprint without jeopardizing the operational efficiency, while also meeting the safety critical requirements of AC 150/5390-2C (Heliport Design Advisory Circular). By participating in the ACRP design challenge, the team hoped to expedite the realization of Urban Air Mobility by contributing innovative solutions to issues facing the National Airspace System.
This proposal solves an inherent problem of urban air mobility. The innovative vertiplex design effectively addressed surface constraint in urban environments by decreasing the surface footprint of high density vertiplex. Increased accessibility of vertiplex will further customer acceptance by increasing time-saving benefits when utilizing Urban Air Mobility as an alternative mode of transportation. Based on the rudimentary operational analysis of the vertiplex, the design increases the surface operation by 28% and decreases the surface footprint by 52% when compared with similar horizontal vertiplex.
As Urban Air Mobility is the land of unknown variables, the team conducted multiple meetings with industry experts across USRA, NASA and SJSU to fill in the missing variables when designing the vertiplex. Additionally, the NAMS R&D student program "lightning talk" presentations allowed the team to meet another intern, Emin Burak Onat, who is currently developing the vertiport simulation tool, Vertisim. Since then, there have been collaborations to conduct operational analysis to evaluate the practical potential of Vertical Vertiplex for Urban Air Mobility.
In addition to participating in the ACRP design challenge, the team is submitting a publication to provide detailed documentation of the new approach that can serve as a foundation for UAM stakeholders in the future.
Smart Mobility Mentors: Paul Fast (Ph.D.) Project Manager, Aeronautics Project Office (NASA), David Bell (Ph.D.) Director and Chief Technologist (USRA), Wenbin Wei Aviation Department Professor (SJSU), Richard Walsh Aeronautics SME (NARI), Zaheer Ali (Ph.D.) Senior Manager (USRA), Saba Hussain Program Manager, R&D Collaborations (USRA)
