Title:  Modeling and Control of Networked Autonomous Mobility Systems

Committee: 

Dr. Coogan, Advisor      

Dr. F. Zhang, Chair

Dr. Wardi

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is to study the problem of scheduling urban air mobility trips when travel times are uncertain and capacity at destinations is limited. Urban air mobility, in which air transportation is used for relatively short trips within a city or region, is emerging as a possible component in future transportation networks. Destinations in urban air mobility networks, called vertiports or vertistops, typically have limited landing capacity, and, for safety, it must be guaranteed that an air vehicle will be able to land before it can be allowed to take off. In our preliminary work, we present a tractable model of urban air mobility networks that accounts for limited landing capacity and uncertain travel times between destinations with lower and upper travel time bounds. We then establish theoretical bounds on the achievable throughput of the network. In addition, we present a tractable algorithm for scheduling trips to satisfy safety constraints and arrival deadlines. The algorithm allows for dynamically updating the schedule to accommodate, e.g., new demands over time and is demonstrated in the case studies on two networks.