Reducing Environmental Footprint through transformative Multi-scale Aviation Planning

Project Motivation

In today’s world that climate change is a major threat, the need to assess and minimise the environmental impact of our activities become evident. Aviation is a major contributor to the emitted greenhouse gases and the rapid rising of urban air mobility will only add to this problem. For this reason, there is a need to create a management system that will optimise trajectories. Optimising trajectories will not only help reduce the environmental footprint of aviation and urban air mobility, but also will have a financial benefit. At the same time, while more and more vehicles move through the air, the impact of the noise they produce, on both community and wildlife remains understudied. Both for emissions and noise, the natural air flows play also a big part.  RefMap aims to address these issues through the development of a transformative digital technology platform that allows quantifying the environmental footprints associated with multi-scale aviation using big data and AI.

Project Ambition

RefMap aims to revolutionise the aviation industry by developing a comprehensive approach to improving air traffic management, reducing environmental footprint, and assessing and minimising the noise impact of drones on communities and wildlife. The project utilises cutting-edge technologies, including deep learning techniques, HPC auto-tuning, and GPU acceleration, to accurately predict flow patterns, optimise drone trajectories, and conduct high-fidelity simulations. To ensure ethical data acquisition, the project also prioritises cyber security and decentralised data management.

Beyond technology, RefMap also has a holistic view of aviation business models and aims to align aviation needs with stakeholders’ needs to extrapolate the business value of green technology. By promoting green management practices, RefMap demonstrates how green technologies can benefit all aviation stakeholders, from airlines and airports to communities and wildlife. RefMap’s ambition extends beyond developing an air quality model; it also includes developing a flight dynamic model that can handle high-density aircraft scenarios, optimising commercial flight trajectories to reduce environmental impact, and minimising the impact of drone noise on populated areas through noise generation and perception optimization. The project also seeks to create a drone noise impact assessment approach for wildlife and provide guidelines to minimise the impact of drone noise on both communities and wildlife.

https://futureneeds.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Refmap_grp_edited-scaled-e1679304471525.jpg

RefMap use cases

RefMap tool will have an impact on the service offer of aviation operators active in the large scale, such as airlines and small scale, such as drone operators. This tool will enable the provision of new and environmentally-optimal services in the small scale and the optimisation of current aircraft operations. The stakeholders involved and benefited from the outcomes of RefMap are: airlines, drone operators, airports, regulators and policy-makers. The services that are envisioned to be enabled through our technology in the RefMap project are briefly described in the following use cases:

  • Use cases in large scale (airlines and airports)
  • Use cases in small scale (urban air mobility)

How does Future Needs participate?

Future Needs leads the following activities:

  • Project Branding, Dissemination and Communication activities
  • Clustering with relevant projects and ATM/U-space stakeholders

Future Needs also leads the “Development of the RefMap services and the new European businesses they enable” work package which aims to:

  • Validate the potential of RefMap analytics, simulations and platform and define the MVP based on user needs
  • Define and validate the new business models that the RefMap analytics will enable

Funding

The funding of the project comes from HORIZON-CL5-2022-D5-01-13

Project Facts

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Reducing Environmental Footprint through transformative Multi-scale Aviation Planning

Project Motivation

In today’s world that climate change is a major threat, the need to assess and minimise the environmental impact of our activities become evident. Aviation is a major contributor to the emitted greenhouse gases and the rapid rising of urban air mobility will only add to this problem. For this reason, there is a need to create a management system that will optimise trajectories. Optimising trajectories will not only help reduce the environmental footprint of aviation and urban air mobility, but also will have a financial benefit. At the same time, while more and more vehicles move through the air, the impact of the noise they produce, on both community and wildlife remains understudied. Both for emissions and noise, the natural air flows play also a big part.  RefMap aims to address these issues through the development of a transformative digital technology platform that allows quantifying the environmental footprints associated with multi-scale aviation using big data and AI.

Project Ambition

RefMap aims to revolutionise the aviation industry by developing a comprehensive approach to improving air traffic management, reducing environmental footprint, and assessing and minimising the noise impact of drones on communities and wildlife. The project utilises cutting-edge technologies, including deep learning techniques, HPC auto-tuning, and GPU acceleration, to accurately predict flow patterns, optimise drone trajectories, and conduct high-fidelity simulations. To ensure ethical data acquisition, the project also prioritises cyber security and decentralised data management.

Beyond technology, RefMap also has a holistic view of aviation business models and aims to align aviation needs with stakeholders’ needs to extrapolate the business value of green technology. By promoting green management practices, RefMap demonstrates how green technologies can benefit all aviation stakeholders, from airlines and airports to communities and wildlife. RefMap’s ambition extends beyond developing an air quality model; it also includes developing a flight dynamic model that can handle high-density aircraft scenarios, optimising commercial flight trajectories to reduce environmental impact, and minimising the impact of drone noise on populated areas through noise generation and perception optimization. The project also seeks to create a drone noise impact assessment approach for wildlife and provide guidelines to minimise the impact of drone noise on both communities and wildlife.

https://futureneeds.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Refmap_grp_edited-scaled-e1679304471525.jpg

RefMap use cases

RefMap tool will have an impact on the service offer of aviation operators active in the large scale, such as airlines and small scale, such as drone operators. This tool will enable the provision of new and environmentally-optimal services in the small scale and the optimisation of current aircraft operations. The stakeholders involved and benefited from the outcomes of RefMap are: airlines, drone operators, airports, regulators and policy-makers. The services that are envisioned to be enabled through our technology in the RefMap project are briefly described in the following use cases:

  • Use cases in large scale (airlines and airports)
  • Use cases in small scale (urban air mobility)

How does Future Needs participate?

Future Needs leads the following activities:

  • Project Branding, Dissemination and Communication activities
  • Clustering with relevant projects and ATM/U-space stakeholders

Future Needs also leads the “Development of the RefMap services and the new European businesses they enable” work package which aims to:

  • Validate the potential of RefMap analytics, simulations and platform and define the MVP based on user needs
  • Define and validate the new business models that the RefMap analytics will enable

Funding

The funding of the project comes from HORIZON-CL5-2022-D5-01-13

Project Facts

0123456789001234567890Partners
01234567890Countries
01234567890Years

Reducing Environmental Footprint through transformative Multi-scale Aviation Planning

Project Motivation

In today’s world that climate change is a major threat, the need to assess and minimise the environmental impact of our activities become evident. Aviation is a major contributor to the emitted greenhouse gases and the rapid rising of urban air mobility will only add to this problem. For this reason, there is a need to create a management system that will optimise trajectories. Optimising trajectories will not only help reduce the environmental footprint of aviation and urban air mobility, but also will have a financial benefit. At the same time, while more and more vehicles move through the air, the impact of the noise they produce, on both community and wildlife remains understudied. Both for emissions and noise, the natural air flows play also a big part.  RefMap aims to address these issues through the development of a transformative digital technology platform that allows quantifying the environmental footprints associated with multi-scale aviation using big data and AI.

Project Ambition

RefMap aims to revolutionise the aviation industry by developing a comprehensive approach to improving air traffic management, reducing environmental footprint, and assessing and minimising the noise impact of drones on communities and wildlife. The project utilises cutting-edge technologies, including deep learning techniques, HPC auto-tuning, and GPU acceleration, to accurately predict flow patterns, optimise drone trajectories, and conduct high-fidelity simulations. To ensure ethical data acquisition, the project also prioritises cyber security and decentralised data management.

Beyond technology, RefMap also has a holistic view of aviation business models and aims to align aviation needs with stakeholders’ needs to extrapolate the business value of green technology. By promoting green management practices, RefMap demonstrates how green technologies can benefit all aviation stakeholders, from airlines and airports to communities and wildlife. RefMap’s ambition extends beyond developing an air quality model; it also includes developing a flight dynamic model that can handle high-density aircraft scenarios, optimising commercial flight trajectories to reduce environmental impact, and minimising the impact of drone noise on populated areas through noise generation and perception optimization. The project also seeks to create a drone noise impact assessment approach for wildlife and provide guidelines to minimise the impact of drone noise on both communities and wildlife.

https://futureneeds.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Refmap_grp_edited-scaled-e1679304471525.jpg

RefMap use cases

RefMap tool will have an impact on the service offer of aviation operators active in the large scale, such as airlines and small scale, such as drone operators. This tool will enable the provision of new and environmentally-optimal services in the small scale and the optimisation of current aircraft operations. The stakeholders involved and benefited from the outcomes of RefMap are: airlines, drone operators, airports, regulators and policy-makers. The services that are envisioned to be enabled through our technology in the RefMap project are briefly described in the following use cases:

  • Use cases in large scale (airlines and airports)
  • Use cases in small scale (urban air mobility)

How does Future Needs participate?

Future Needs leads the following activities:

  • Project Branding, Dissemination and Communication activities
  • Clustering with relevant projects and ATM/U-space stakeholders

Future Needs also leads the “Development of the RefMap services and the new European businesses they enable” work package which aims to:

  • Validate the potential of RefMap analytics, simulations and platform and define the MVP based on user needs
  • Define and validate the new business models that the RefMap analytics will enable

Funding

The funding of the project comes from HORIZON-CL5-2022-D5-01-13

Project Facts

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Urban Air Mobility School for Cities – UAMschool4cities

What is the mission of UAMschool4cities?

UAMschool4cities’ mission is to create a learning framework and a training programme for current and future local authority employees which will equip them with the necessary skills to manage the uptake of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) services in their city. In particular, UAMschool4cities project will create a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for professionals of any background interested in entering the local Public Administration mobility sector.

The MOOC will enable participants to:

  • Get familiar with UAM concepts and key technologies.
  • Keep up with relevant regulatory frameworks.
  • Include UAM in urban development agendas.
  • Develop responsible and socially acceptable UAM services for the benefit of citizens.

The Training programme will be piloted with 70 city employees from 10 cities across Europe. At the end of the course participants will be awarded with the ‘’UAM for Cities Certificate”.

What is the “Occupational Profile” Future Needs will develop?

In UAMschool4cities, Future Needs will develop an initial Occupational Profile based on outcomes of a series of two-day workshops in five countries with a panel of high-performing city staff already working in the area of UAM for their city. During each workshop these skilled employees will identify the duties and tasks that make up their job. Thus the result will be an Occupational Profile which describes a job in terms of specific duties and tasks that competent UAM staff must perform. Finally the description will be complemented by a visually attractive user-friendly chart.

Urban Air Mobility - Local authority employees training

The “Training Platform” as a service

Furthermore, Future Needs Management Consulting will also design the e-learning Training Platform of UAMschool4cities, which will host the online course. The Training programme will be available in 5 languages: English, French , Greek , Portuguese , Slovenian.

At the end of the project partners will release the validated Training Programme as a service to become available for every European city and beyond.

What are the project mid-term objectives?

By the end of the project partners aim to have achieved the following mid-term outcomes:

  • The delivery of a comprehensive Occupational Profile for UAM public domain experts that Human Resources departments across local, national and EU administrations can utilize.
  • The establishment of a coherent learning methodology for training public servants in UAM which cities and Adult Learning professionals may utilize.

What is the long-term impact of UAMschool4cities?

The longer-term impact of the project will be:

  • The establishment of a mechanism that will provide cities with skilled and qualified UAM experts.
  • Enhanced employability of professionals from various domains through acquisition of UAM skills and competences.
  • Acceleration of deployment of innovative transport services in EU cities, as a result of application of newly acquired skills in practice by trained UAM experts.

Project Facts

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Enabling sustainable oenological practices through a robotic UAS solution for precision viticulture

What is the aim of Oenobotics?

Oenobotics services will be delivered to customers such as vineyard farmers or associations. It will use a hardware-as-a-service business model, supporting viticulture farmers to avoid significant initial investment costs. The Oenobotics hardware and software will also be available to drone companies and interested farmers as an off-the-shelf product. The solution addresses the needs of wine-producing vineyards located in remote sloppy elevated locations that are hard to reach with any machinery.

In particular, the Oenobotics project deploys a droned platform that will provide viticulture farmers the following innovative and affordable precision viticulture services:

  1. Vine disease diagnostics.
  2. Vine water-stress diagnostics.
  3. Precise spot-spraying for treatment of downy mildew, powdery mildew and grey mould/botrytis.
  4. A wireless and automated drone charging dock.
Drone use for viticulture farming

What will Future Needs coordinate?

Future Needs Management Consulting will coordinate the Minimum Viable Product definition and the service design in the Oenobotics project. Additionally, Future Needs will coordinate the trials, the user-validation and the fine-tuning of the system. Initially Future Needs will provide a description of all the services and the system technical requirements and mockups of the final product and will draw the services. When the system is built, test drone flights over Kontogiannis Family vineyards with known health state will take place. They will diagnose correctly the plants health state (disease and water-stress diagnosis) and they will spray precisely a liquid (water or a specific biological mix approved by the user) in selected areas. Finally they will automatically return to and land on the docking station to recharge.

How will Oenobotics help vineyard owners & workers?

These Oenobotics services will assist vineyards owners in avoiding health impacts of chemicals and heat on vineyard workers. What’s more, Oenobotics will help farmers to react much faster to extreme weather changes caused by climate change. Finally the project aims to assist farmers to be more sustainable and profitable by producing yield of better quality, using less pesticides (in case of conventional farming) and producing less CO2 emissions (in case of organic farming). Project results will be demonstrated in an organic vineyard in Greece.

Which activities will Future Needs lead?

Future Needs is the leader of all the market related activities of the undertaking in the Oenobotics project. These include IPR Management and GDPR, the creation of the product brand and associated promotional material. Also, the organisation of two promotional events in collaboration with DIHs and the marketing campaign for early adoption and ecosystem building. Additionally Future Needs will make a business and financial plan and a preparation for the market entry, to ensure the financial sustainability of the undertaking. Finally, Future Needs will establish an expansion strategy in order to define the means for developing scalable user-centred services and will create organizational plans (structure, processes) for the new venture that will drive the Oenobotics solution into the market.

Funding

Oenobotics is an Innovation project funded under the Open Call of the H2020 agROBOfood project.

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Safe and flexible integration of advanced U-space services for medical air mobility

SAFIR-Med is an awarded U-space management large-scale innovation project. Drones are emerging as a viable solution for urgent and reliable medical transport. The vision of SAFIR-Med is to demonstrate the use of urban air mobility in service to the EU healthcare system. and to ensure democratic access to cure and care for future generations. This is why it was selected by SESAR among other demonstration projects as the most successful in showing the benefits of SESAR innovation in live operational contexts, helping to secure stakeholder buy-in and with potential to have long-term positive impact on #ATM performance.

What will we learn from SAFIR-Med?

All lessons learnt from this U-space management project are documented in a performance assessment and a recommendations report. The report includes:

  • Refinements to the current U-space architecture principles.
  • Proposals for improved operational procedures and mechanisms for an effective interface with Air Traffic Control (ATC) and U-space service providers.
  • Α Human Performance Assessment (led by Future Needs) detailing how controllers performed during the demonstrations.

Another innovative outcome of the project is the creation of a set of Urban Air Mobility indicators which will help cities get acquainted with their role in U-space management and help them include UAM in their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs).

The role of Future Needs in the project

Future Needs led the development of Smart City UAM indicators framework in the SAFIR-Med project. In this task we conducted an impact assessment on the effectiveness and implications of UAM adoption for the urban spatial structure and citizens focusing on the mid-term timeline. We primarily focused on the significance of changes that will be brought about in the city context considering the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators (SUMI) outlined by the European Commission.

Furthermore, Future Needs leads the dissemination, communication and exploitation activities of the SAFIR-Med project. We have created the project’s website and dissemination material (poster and flyer), prepared the press releases, and we are curating the newsletter and the social media, Twitter and Linkedin, of the project. We have also organised the SAFIR-Med events together with the project partners. The website has been continuously updated and presents the project’s deliverables, news, brochures, flyers, videos, consortium’s expertise in UAM and project’s progress and results from the demonstrations. In our role of social media coordinator we are posting news and updates on the SAFIR-Med activities and the progression of project’s tasks and deliverables, as well as launch novel cross-project campaigns like running the #UAMExplained campaign. Very early we have reached and finally quadrupled our initial goals receiving congratulations from SESAR3 JU for the best Dissemination and Communication among the SJU projects.

Future Needs also prepared and conducted the Human Performance Assessment during the demonstrations. Our role was to identify the HP requirements and recommendations to support the design and development of the new U-space concept. We ensured that the roles and responsibilities of human actors in the demonstrations are clear and exhaustive and that the refined operating methods are also exhaustive and support human performance, and finally that human actors can achieve their tasks in a timely and accurate way.

Last but not least, Future Needs acted as a Sustainability manager in the  SAFIR-Med project.  We ensured the future exploitation and deployment of the project results and the continuation of the SAFIR-Med research and innovation.

Finally, Future Needs was in charge of the research ethics and data protection of the project. We coordinated the process of keeping records on how, when, where and why data is collected, how it is processed, how it is used, stored and secured, how access is granted to project partners. All that is documented in the Data Management Plan of the Project as well as the Ethics deliverables.

What was tested during the project?

During the project new U-Space services were tested to validate their contribution to operational safety. Technologies that were tested during the demonstrations include detect-and-avoid as a service, dynamic geofencing and air traffic prioritization rules. Five drone platforms were combined with manned aviation in operational exercises that will validate technology in real urban environment. These platforms are: passenger eVTOL, hydrogen fuel cell VTOL, AED medical drone, X8 medical transport and tiltwing VTOL drone.

What about project demonstrations?

Project demonstrations took place at the city of Antwerp in Belgium and are soon to be completed in Aachen, Germany  and the trans-border MAHHL region. A de-risking exercise will took place at the DronePort test-facility in Sint-Truiden in Belgium.

Real demonstrations were enhanced by large-scale simulations in order to test how U-space services respond to maximum airspace capacity. Finally, project recommendations were further validated by simulating demonstrations in two additional locations in Europe, namely, Athens, Greece and Prague, Czech Republic. These demonstrations included passenger transport between hospitals and public spaces and transport of life-saving medical goods and equipment to the scene of incidents.

What will EU cities achieve through this project?

Thanks to SAFIR-Med EU cities will be enabled to:

  • Κeep up with relevant regulatory changes.
  • Ιnclude Urban Air Mobility in their urban development agendas.
  • Start using Urban Air Mobility technology for the benefit of their citizens.

Funding

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant Agreement No 101017701 and under the topic “SESAR-VLD2-03-2020: U-space capabilities and services to enable Urban Air Mobility”.

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