U-Space Roadmap

U1 Foundation
Provide e-registration, e-identification and geofencing.
U2 Initial
Support the management of drone operations and may include flight planning, flight approval, tracking, airspace dynamic information, and procedural interfaces with air traffic control.
U3 Advanced
Support more complex operations in dense areas and may include capacity management and assistance for conflict detection. Indeed, the availability of automated ‘detect and avoid’ (DAA) functionalities, in addition to more reliable means of communication, will lead to a significant increase of operations in all environments.
U4 Full
Particularly services offering integrated interfaces with manned aviation, support the full operational capability of U-space and will rely on very high level of automation, connectivity and digitalisation for both the drone and the U-space system.
About the project
Metropolis 2 is a project that responds to
SESAR-JU (Single European Sky ATM Research Joint Undertaking) necessity of providing concrete solutions to enable air traffic in high-density urban environments. As the european research market is drifting towards U3/U4 services, the project consolidates the results from U1/U2 services and provides a realistic foundation for future Urban Air Mobility (UAM). It is one of the few projects that is working with U4 services.
A main focus is given to develop solutions to strategic deconfliction, tactical deconfliction and dynamic capacity management. The project is being developed by a consortium of eight institutions with wide experience in U-Space research activities while the outcome concepts and results will contribute to enable safe and efficient U-Space operations in urban environments. Metropolis 2 lies within the EU-2020 Research and Innovation programme.
Consortium

Delft University of Technology

Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile ENAC

NTT DATA Spain S.L.U.

Linkoping university

The Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre

Unifly
