Integration of a 4D-trajectory Follower to Improve Multi-UAV Conflict Management Within the U-Space Context

Abstract

A safe integration of UAVs into the airspace is fundamental to unblock all the potential of drone applications. U-space is the drone traffic management solution for Europe, intended to handle a large number of drones into the airspace, especially at Very Low Level (VLL). This paper is focused on conflict management for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles in the context of the U-space under 4D trajectory based operations (4D-TBO). A novel method for multi-UAV conflict management at tactical level for large-scale scenarios is presented. The integration of 4D-TBO in this context has been implemented with a four dimensional trajectory follower based on the carrot chasing algorithm. This method minimizes, through the whole flight, the mean normal distance to the defined trajectory and the mean difference with respect to the defined arrival times. Finally, the integrated system has been implemented in a software in the loop environment with a commercial autopilot. The simulation results show better performance with respect to other classical approaches.