AEROSPACE ENGINEERING STRATEGIC VISION /// 2022-2027
Advanced Air Mobility
Advances in technology, coupled with emerging societal and economic trends are transforming aviation. The goal of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is to serve transportation needs (people and cargo) across a spectrum of new or under-utilized air spaces. This includes Urban and Regional Air Mobility (UAM/RAM), and opens aerospace research to a new level of possibilities, from air traffic management and electrification to autonomy and human factors. This opportunity is attracting billions in venture capital and hundreds of suppliers from the aerospace, automotive and IT sectors are pursuing a wide range of solutions. Research and innovation in AAM is expected to grow in magnitude, and accelerate economic growth and enable aggressive regulatory reform.
WHY MICHIGAN?
The historical automotive research and industrial conglomerate in Southeast Michigan, along with U-M’s core rotocraft knowledge and diverse and world-class departments and research centers provide us with immense opportunities for synergies across all pillars of AAM. From Aerospace and Robotics to the Battery Lab, collaborative research across disciplines spurs innovation and diversity of ideas. U-M’s one-of-a-kind large-scale outdoor facilities, such as M-City and M-Air, uniquely enable end-to-end testing and development in realistic urban and suburban environments that strictly abide by safety and fly regulations, becoming the perfect sites for AAM research.
Trustworthy Autonomy
Autonomy will be the future driver of AAM, enabling trustworthiness via integrated information, software, and hardware capabilities: on the information level, secure and reliable communications; on the software-level, end-to-end security and assured guidance and control; and on the hardware level, failure-resistant, redundant, safe systems. Further, complex air traffic management for optionally-piloted and autonomous aircraft will autonomously accommodate disruptive classes of vehicles, from delivery drones to air-taxis, enabling automated collision-free and resource-aware path planning.
Vehicle design and electrification
Efficient, low-noise, lightweight, low-cost, and reliable vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft are desired for various AAM functions. Along with new configurational designs, improvements in battery power density, and electric and hybrid-electric propulsion solutions, new requirements and constraints are opening up a broad design space that requires integrated solutions. Manufacturing technologies between the automotive and aerospace fields will converge in research.
Integration & operations
AAM will need to integrate with legacy airspace operations, and more broadly, existing societal infrastructure systems. The design and operation of future AAM vehicles has to be co-developed alongside next-generation air traffic management modalities, airspace procedures, and technologies, as well as solutions to mitigate challenges in societal acceptance.