The rapid expansion of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) poses significant challenges for the integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into dense urban environments, where safety risks and population exposure are particularly high. This study proposes and applies a methodology based on probabilistic assessment of both ground and air risk, grounded in the principles of safety management and the use of geospatial data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), official aeronautical charts, and digital urban models. The urban area is discretized into a spatial grid on which independent risks are calculated per cell and later combined through a cumulative probabilistic fusion model. The resulting risk estimates enable the construction of cost matrices compatible with path-search algorithms. The methodology is applied to a case study in Medellín, Colombia, connecting the Oviedo and San Diego shopping centers through Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations of a DJI FlyCart 30 drone. Results show that planning with the A* algorithm produces safe routes that minimize exposure to critical areas such as hospitals and restricted air corridors, while maintaining operational efficiency metrics. This approach demonstrates a practical bridge between regulatory theory and operational practice in UAM corridor design, offering a replicable solution for risk management in urban scenarios.

This paper presents the design, optimization, and performance evaluation of a Satellite-Based Augmentation System (SBAS) ground segment tailored to Colombia’s air navigation infrastructure, with emphasis on ionospheric anomalies in equatorial latitudes. The configuration comprises six Reference Stations (RIMS), strategically sited via geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) minimization and airspace demand models from ADS-B data. A simulation suite—integrating STK^®, Radio Mobile™, and Stanford-ESA certified monitors—quantifies service volume, link margins, and protection level compliance. Ionospheric threat characterization uses regional scintillation datasets (σln ≈ 0.36, ROTI₉₅ ≈ 85 mm/km), informing GIVE inflation and dual-frequency pseudorange integrity validation. Simulations confirm the system sustains ≥ 99.8% APV-I availability over the CAR/SAM FIR, with Horizontal and Vertical Protection Levels (HPL/VPL) bounded below 28 m and 46 m. Uplink integrity and GEO broadcast continuity are modelled under worst-case masking and multipath, confirming ICAO Annex 10 SARPs compliance. The architecture achieves a high performance-to-cost ratio, enabling nationwide SBAS coverage with a 65% cost reduction versus legacy navaids. The system is forward-compatible with dual-frequency multi-constellation SBAS (DFMC), supporting future APV-II scalability. These results position Colombia as a regional node for GNSS augmentation, fostering safety, efficiency, and procedural harmonization.

Flutter constrains the design of modern high-aspect-ratio wings, yet the combined influence of planform geometry, aspect ratio (AR) and structural flexibility is rarely assessed within a single consistent framework. This work presents a unified, physics-based reduced-order comparison of rectangular, trapezoidal and elliptical planforms under both rigid and flexible representations, intended as a screening tool for preliminary design rather than as a quantitatively predictive methodology for specific aircraft. A two-degree-of-freedom plunge–pitch typical section with quasi-steady (Theodorsen-based) aerodynamics is cast in state-space form, and flutter is identified through eigenvalue continuation by combined frequency coalescence and damping sign change. For rectangular and trapezoidal wings, increasing AR or reducing stiffness consistently advances flutter onset: at a fixed AR of 7.1, stiffening alone raises the critical speed by approximately 43 m/s (from 105 to 148 m/s, ≈+41%). In contrast, within the reduced-order model the elliptical planform inverts this trend: with sufficient stiffness, frequency coalescence is suppressed, and from the stiffened baseline (AR ≈ 4.75) raising AR to 5.6 keeps the wing flutter-free across the investigated velocity range, whereas lowering AR to 3.9 reintroduces hard flutter at 155 m/s. These model-based comparative tendencies indicate that AR and structural flexibility are strongly coupled design drivers and that elliptical loading is comparatively flutter-resistant, providing an efficient basis for early-stage configuration screening.

Colombia currently lacks sovereign space situational awareness (SSA) capabilities despite the growing strategic importance of protecting national space assets such as the FACSAT constellation. This paper proposes a hybrid radar-enhanced SSA architecture tailored to Colombia’s geographical, climatic, and institutional constraints, integrating dual-frequency ([ ]-band) ground radars, CubeSat optical assets, and an AI-enabled multisensor fusion framework. The methodology combines analytical propagation modeling, environmental attenuation assessment, sensor-geometry analysis, and a fusion pipeline incorporating classical filtering and machine-learning–based residual estimation. Simulation results indicate that the proposed architecture can achieve high levels of LEO detection coverage—approaching 90–95% under idealized sensor geometries—and low-latency orbital updates, with performance dependent on radar siting, environmental conditions, and the deployment of edge computing nodes. The study provides an evidence-based roadmap for Colombia to develop scalable, weather-resilient SSA capabilities and reduce reliance on foreign networks. The findings highlight the feasibility of a phased implementation strategy that strengthens national autonomy while enabling future regional cooperation in Latin American space safety and surveillance.

Flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs) have gained increasing attention due to their manoeuvrability, low acoustic signature, and suitability for confined or cluttered environments. Despite considerable progress, existing reviews treat actuation mechanisms and mechanical transmissions in isolation, leaving a gap in the comparative assessment of pulley-based and alternative flapping systems. This study provides a comprehensive and quantitative synthesis of the literature on FWMAV mechanical architectures, with particular emphasis on pulley-driven transmissions used in platforms such as the Nano Hummingbird and the Robotic Hummingbird. A structured review methodology was applied, incorporating a systematic database search, extraction of performance parameters, and cross-platform comparison of flapping frequency, lift generation, power consumption, lift-to-weight ratio, and material choices. The analysis identifies consistent scaling trends across motor-driven, piezoelectric, and hybrid actuation families and highlights the efficiency and stroke-amplification advantages of pulley-based mechanisms for centimetre-scale hovering MAVs. The review also identifies unresolved challenges, including durability of transmission materials, standardisation of performance metrics, and the need for high-fidelity aerodynamic characterisation. Overall, this work offers an integrated framework for understanding the trade-offs among actuation and transmission strategies and provides a roadmap to guide future research and the practical development of next-generation FWMAVs.

Dragonflies exhibit remarkable flight stability in unsteady environments, largely due to aerodynamic interaction between their forewings and hindwings. This study investigates gust response in dragonfly-inspired micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) from a system dynamics perspective, with emphasis on the aerodynamic role of tandem-wing interaction rather than control compensation. A six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) rigid-body framework is developed and coupled with a quasi-steady aerodynamic model that includes explicit phase-dependent interaction between forewing and hindwing forces. Gusts are introduced as time-varying inflow perturbations, allowing physically consistent analysis of how disturbances propagate through aerodynamic loading into vehicle motion. Simulations are performed for representative flight conditions, including gliding, hovering, and gust-perturbed ascent. The results show bounded trajectory, velocity, and attitude responses under sustained gust excitation, even with conservative baseline control. Force and energy analyses indicate that wing–wake interaction redistributes aerodynamic loads in time and reduces peak force and moment fluctuations before they reach the rigid-body dynamics. This behavior is interpreted as passive aerodynamic filtering of gust disturbances inherent to the tandem-wing configuration. Comparative simulations using backstepping control and Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) further show that the dominant gust attenuation arises from aerodynamic configuration rather than from control action. Although the aerodynamic model is quasi-steady, the framework reproduces key trends reported in biological and CFD-based studies and provides a numerical foundation for future wind-tunnel and free-flight experiments on configuration-level gust attenuation.