Acubed Project Executive Talks UTM at Airbus

Acubed is an Airbus innovation center located in Silicon Valley, California. Airbus UTM is one of three current areas of exploration at Acubed. The Airbus UTM team works to build digital solutions for air traffic management that will enable new entrants in the airspace, such as drones, air taxis, and autonomous vehicles.

Airbus UTM signed a memorandum of cooperation with Eurocontrol in June 2022. They are collaborating on simulation of uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) and uncrewed traffic management (UTM). The team is involved in multiple research projects and is collaborating with other partners to enable the adoption of air taxi operations, drone delivery services, and more.

Dr. Scot Campbell, Project Executive at Airbus UTM, recently discussed their development of services and technologies in an interview with Avionics International. Check out our question-and-answer session with Dr. Campbell below.

Avionics International: What is the vision of Airbus UTM?

Dr. Scot Campbell: We see UTM as a strong enabler of what the future airspace will be. We envision the future airspace to be integrated. This means we see small drones, urban air mobility vehicles, commercial aircraft, general aviation aircraft, and helicopters all sharing the same airspace. This is different from segregated airspace where you have specific areas devoted only to UAS and other areas devoted to UAM or to commercial aircraft. We think that this approach of an integrated airspace is scalable, and it is the underpinning of our mission.

In many ways, UTM exists right now. We’re trying to enable new entrants to scale, and maintain an airspace that is safe, efficient, and fair for all participants. We’re working in iterative development.

What is the team currently working on?

Dr. Campbell: We are part of a program called LAANC, or Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, for the FAA. We offer commercial services to drone service providers to allow their operators automatic access to controlled airspace around the U.S. We have a number of commercial customers, and we’re in the process of getting another one onboard.

We see these types of engagements as very beneficial to UTM. We can operate services now, we can get into the market now, we can get insights from operators now, and we use a lot of those insights to feed into future concepts of operation that are for more advanced operations.

We have been involved with partners such as NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility National Campaign, where we’ve been using our simulation capability to understand what the traffic management systems for advanced air mobility should be.

We have partners in Europe as well, such as Eurocontrol. We’re working with Eurocontrol on U-space simulation to provide insights into how U-space should be implemented. U-space, is in many ways, the European implementation of UTM. We think this is very important as the U-space regulation goes into effect in 2023, and we see this as a very big enabler to helping Eurocontrol and the member states having a safe and efficient role.

Can you share any specifics on the services and technologies that Airbus UTM is working on?

Dr. Campbell: The services that we have deployed right now to our commercial customers are related to the LAANC program. All of these services that we have deployed are based on current rules and regulations by the FAA. We have also been involved, through our partners at Airbus, in a number of SESAR initiatives.

The services that are envisioned for the future include things like strategic deconfliction—ensuring that the flight plans or the intent of operators are deconflicted before flying. The idea is that it will minimize the likelihood of a midair collision. Other services we envision are related to performance monitoring—monitoring how well the vehicles are conforming to their pre-flight plans—and services related to remote identification. The ability of our network or the vehicles themselves to broadcast their identity to stakeholders on the ground is a service that we think can be shared through the network of UTM so that the drone is visible to others.

What are the challenges facing UTM or U-space?

Dr. Campbell: The challenges are around how these services are implemented in a way that is acceptable to the public and which is harmonized across borders—and even within borders—so that the information that is shared, and the digital data that is exchanged, follows standards.

We see that one of the risks is that as UTM is being rolled out, it’s being rolled out in different ways in different areas of the world. We’ve been very active in standards organizations such as ASTM to work together as an industry to try and harmonize—at the data exchange layer at a minimum—how UTM will be implemented.

A lot of the services for advanced operations such as deconfliction are highly dependent on digital data exchange. It is very important that different UTM service providers are exchanging information so that we’re seeing a common picture of situational awareness of the airspace, flights can be deconflicted, and we can maintain safety and also shoot for efficiency goals.

One of the challenges is ensuring that the standards for data exchange, the standards that are underlying a lot of UTM, are harmonized globally. We work with a number of standards bodies and regulators to try and make that happen.

How do you envision this industry evolving? How do you see Airbus UTM playing a part in the changing industry?

Dr. Campbell: I think the industry has a very positive outlook. As regulation goes into place, there is groundwork being laid to make it easier for operators to fly advanced missions. For example, right now, if an operator wants to fly beyond visual line of sight, they have to do a number of different things to get operational approval, both in the U.S. and abroad.

As we’re working with standards organizations and regulators, we are putting in place the services to make it easier and more accessible for operators to access the airspace. From an evolutionary standpoint, I think that regulation will go into place and we will have a set of UTM services that either support or complement that regulation. What this will do is really enable scale in the market.

I think that over the next 5 to 10 years, we’ll see a much wider spectrum of advanced operations, including beyond visual line of sight, that are supported by digital services coming from UTM. A lot of the technologies and concepts that we’re developing in UTM for small UAS will grow and evolve to support advanced air mobility and have the potential to grow and evolve to support high-altitude operations like high-altitude pseudo satellites.

The goal here is that we have UTM—which in many ways is a great market opportunity for industry, but it’s also a very interesting sandbox that we’re using to accelerate this digital evolution of air traffic management. My hope is that we see the market growth in UTM and in UAS but that is also an enabler to many other types of new vehicles and new operations in the airspace.