A Holistic Framework for Assessing and Optimizing Energy Consumption for Low-Altitude Air City Transport Systems

Traffic air congestion should be considered in future deployments of Low-Altitude Air city Transport (LAAT) systems. In addition to the congestion concerns, the low-altitude aircraft is being designed with limited energy capacity due to design constraints and battery technologies, e.g., electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (VTOLs). Hence, energy consumption concerns should also be considered within LAAT operations. This paper examines the energy consumption of low-altitude aircraft in air mobility (AM) operations, intending to improve the environmental impact of air mobility in urban and regional areas. To achieve this, the study enhances the LAAT model-based operational framework by integrating an energy consumption model (ECM) for low-altitude aircraft. The framework couples modeling and control of microscopic and macroscopic levels of AM operations. Including the ECM allows us to explore the relationship between macroscopic energy consumption and known macroscopic traffic flow variables. As a result, this paper contributes to the literature with the development of the LAAT Energy Consumption Model (LeM). The LeM does not only quantify the energy consumption of individual aircraft but also facilitates the aggregation of energy consumption for the entire airspace. The study realizes LeM with a simplified feedback control design, i.e., a gating policy, which optimizes the number of aircraft allowed into the network, balancing energy efficiency and traffic efficiency in LAAT networks. The development of the LeM provides a valuable tool for assessing the environmental impact of LAAT systems. LeM can be a benchmark to diagnose airspace conditions and enhance traffic control strategies for operating efficiently and sustainably of LAAT systems.