Vertiport Terminal Scheduling and Throughput Analysis for Multiple Surface Directions

2024-08-02

arXiv.org

AI Summary

To address the scheduling challenge of multi-directional takeoff and landing at vertical airports (vertiminals) in urban air mobility (UAM), this paper proposes the first mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) scheduling model explicitly designed for VTOL multi-directional climb-out and approach paths, along with a closed-form analytical framework for computing theoretical throughput capacity. The method jointly optimizes gate allocation, taxiing, and takeoff/landing trajectories while rigorously enforcing airspace safety constraints and maximizing resource efficiency. Key contributions include: (1) the first mathematical formulation capturing multi-directional airspace utilization, moving beyond conventional single-runway paradigms; (2) an MILP solution that achieves the theoretical throughput upper bound; (3) rapid, simulation-free capacity assessment directly from input parameters via analytical equations; and (4) significant improvements in directional utilization efficiency and overall system throughput.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Planning with Language Models
• Multiagent Systems: Multiagent Planning
• Application Domains: Mobility, Driving & Flight

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Virtualization and resource management in Web systems and infrastructures
• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicles have gained immense popularity in the delivery drone market and are now being developed for passenger transportation in urban areas to efficiently enable Urban Air Mobility (UAM). UAM aims to utilize the urban airspace hidetxt{vertical dimension} to address the problem of heavy road congestion in dense urban cities. VTOL vehicles require vertiport terminals for landing, take-off, passengers boarding or deboarding, refuelling (or charging), and maintenance. An efficient scheduling algorithm is essential to maximize the throughput of the vertiport terminal (vertiminal)hidetxt{ as well as efficient use of airspace} while maintaining safety protocols to handle the UAM traffic. While traditional departure and taxiing operations can be applied in the context of vertiminal, specific algorithms are required for take-off and landing schedules. Unlike fixed-wing aircraft that require a runway to take-off and climb in a single direction, VTOL vehicles can approach and climb in several directions. We propose a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) formulation to schedule flights for taxiing, climbing (or approaching) using multiple directions after take-off (before landing) and turnaround on gates. We also derived equations to thoroughly analyze the throughput capacity of a vertiminal considering all its core elements. We have shown that our MILP can achieve the maximum throughput obtained through the equations. Given the input parameters, our analysis can be used to analyze the capacity of a vertiminal without running any simulation, while our MILP can be used to get the most efficient schedule.

Problem

• Optimize vertiport scheduling for VTOL operations
• Maximize throughput using multiple surface directions
• Develop MILP model to reduce delays

Innovation

• Mixed Integer Linear Program optimizes vertiminal operations
• Throughput equations compute upper bounds for capacity
• Dual approach combines MILP and throughput analysis