Purpose: Urban air mobility (UAM) development and deployment into future cities is gaining increasing and relevant interest in the past years. This study, a conceptual paper, aims to report the high-level description of the most relevant UAM application use cases (UCs) emerging from the research activities carried out in the ASSURED UAM project. Design/methodology/approach: The UAM application UCs have been obtained from the ASSURED UAM project dedicated activities that have been carried out to, first, develop suitable operational concepts for UAM deployment in the next decades and, then, to further refine and design the most relevant UCs for UAM deployment in the next decades, leading to the public issue of dedicated overall document. Findings: The ASSURED UAM UCs for UAM deployment in the next decades encompass both public (point-to-point, point-to-everywhere, direct medical transport of people) and private (direct last-mile delivery, advanced last-mile delivery, automatic personal aerial transportation) services applications, evolving in incremental way over time according to three considered time horizons (2025, 2030 and 2035), toward progressive integration into metropolitan transport system. Originality/value: This paper provides final outline of the ASSURED UAM UCs, starting from the analysis of overall identified possible UAM applications, focusing on the description of the six main UCs considered as relevant for the application under the wider societal benefits point of view. The UCs are described in terms of expected operational environment, needed technological enablers and envisaged regulatory implications.

Thanks to their metrological characteristics (accuracy, dimensions, synchronization capability, easy interfacing, and so on), in the last few years, the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) based speed instruments are often used in a wide field of application. The traceability of the measurement results achieved by the GNSS instrument should be made by means of calibration procedures in compliance with the ISO/IEC 17025 standard and ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation) policy on the traceability of measurement results. In this context, some calibration methodologies have been proposed in the literature or used by some calibration centers. In a speed range from 1 to 300 km/h, an analysis on the suitability of the experimental calibration method (based on a couple of photocells placed on the road at a certain distance) for the GNSS speed measurement systems is presented in this paper. An analysis of the measurement setup has allowed for the recognition of both all the uncertainty contributions and defines the variability range of their values. After the formulation of the relationships between the uncertainty contributions and the total calibration uncertainty due to the calibration method, the sensitivity analysis has been made. The analyzed measurement setup, even if considering a careful choice of both instrumentations and methodologies, is suitable for the calibration of high accuracy GNSS based instruments only considering distances between the photocells sufficiently large and for speed values lower than 200 km/h. In any case, the proposed analysis can be a useful tool to allow for the choices on the measurement setup to reach the desired trade-off between calibration costs and compliance with technical requirements and also the calibration of instrumentation different by GNSS.

In space missions, during the long isolation at extreme conditions for human health, it is of paramount importance to monitor vital parameters. One such parameter is the breathing rate. Indeed, several factors can induce some breathing anomalies during the sleep, which may cause apnea episodes. In order to act timely with the right therapy, an early diagnosis is required. Conventional devices are usually uncomfortable since they require electrodes or probes in contact with the subject. An alternative way to perform this kind of measurement in a remote sensing modality is provided by a continuous wave bioradar operating in the microwave frequency band. This is an effective contactless tool for monitoring the respiratory activity through the measurement of chest deformation due to inhalation and exhalation. The radar emits a low power electromagnetic wave at a single frequency, which is reflected by the human chest. By measuring of the phase shift between the incident and reflected wave, it is possible to detect and monitor the respiratory rate. The main contribution of this work is concerned with a metrological characterization of the continuous wave bioradar; which is a topic not thoroughly assessed in the relevant literature. In particular, the bioradar measurements are also compared with data recorded by a spirometer, which is a standard medical device that measures the air volume inhaled and exhaled by the subject. The purpose of this study is the characterization of the measurement standard uncertainty to enable the assessment of the bioradar system performance.

Purpose: This paper aims to describe the advancements of the activities that have been carried out, in the Cost-Optimized Avionics SysTem (COAST) project, to complete the design and in-flight demonstration of the Tactical Separation System (TSS), which is an automatic support system to the pilot’s decision-making, onboard on small air transport (SAT) vehicles under single pilot operations, in the separation management. Design/methodology/approach: In the framework of the Clean Sky 2 funded project COAST, some enabling technologies for single pilot operations in the EASA CS-23 category vehicles are designed and demonstrated in flight. Among the relevant flight management technologies addressed in the project, the specific one devoted to the real-time support to pilot’s decision-making in maintaining the vehicle self-separation is the TSS, designed by the Italian Aerospace Research Centre. Findings: The TSS design started in the year 2016 and has been completed in the year 2021 after successful in-flight demonstration in the dedicated flight test campaign. The system has been validated by means of several simulation campaigns and finally demonstrated its effectiveness in providing its intended functionalities (situational awareness, conflict detection, conflict resolution) to the pilot in real flight trials, involving the presence of real conflicting aircraft. Originality/value: The TSS contributes enabling the implementation of single pilot operations in CS-23 category vehicles, thanks to the possibility to support the pilot with provision of consolidated traffic picture, detection of conflicting surrounding traffic and suggestion of suitable conflict resolution manoeuvre real-time during the flight, through dedicated human–machine interface designed on purpose. The TSS supports the new separation modes that are envisaged in the future SESAR ATM target concept, with particular reference to the possible delegation of the separation responsibility to the pilot.

Aviation operations are increasingly impacted by clear-air turbulence (CAT) encounters, a growing concern in both media and academic circles. Research into CAT focuses on the generation, prediction, detection, and monitoring of the occurring events (thanks to weather-related methodologies and instruments) along with technologies and operational aspects to mitigate their effects, from the perspective of both the flight segment (aircraft and pilot and related onboard systems) and the ground segment (ATM and ATC and related tools). Climate changes have led to more frequent and severe CAT events, highlighting the need for sustainable aviation solutions, aiming to achieve improved theoretical knowledge and technological and operational management advancements. This paper addresses the CAT topic under two main perspectives: the scientific understanding of the phenomena, and the technological management of such occurrence in aviation operations. With reference to the first addressed domain, the paper provides a comprehensive review of the currently used and perspective proposed methodologies and tools for understanding, detecting, and predicting CAT phenomena. With reference to the second addressed domain, then, this paper aimed to analyze the state of the art and trends in the technological and operational management and mitigation of the CAT occurrences at a tactical level (i.e., while in flight) by the aviation, covering the technologies and procedures implemented onboard and in the ground segment. Overall, therefore, this paper assesses the state of the art and identifies the most promising innovations that promote safer, more sustainable future aviation operations, by bridging weather and climate science with aviation engineering, in the presence of CAT events.