Urban Surface and Air Mobility Control: A Microsimulation Integrating Intelligent Fly-Drive Vehicles Into Surface Traffic

The emergence of the urban air mobility (UAM) concept promises to leverage a new generation of electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to provide three-dimensional and comprehensive transportation services. However, UAM does not provide door-to-door service and often requires other transportation modes to travel from origin to destination. To address this problem, study proposes the Urban Surface and Air Mobility (USaAM) concept that enables door-to-door travel, utilizing the same fly-drive vehicle for both surface and airborne transportation. The proposed USaAM concept provides a traffic control system for surface and airborne traffic, allowing for the integration of fly-drive vehicles into the existing surface traffic. To simulate the proposed concept, a first-of-its-kind microsimulation platform is developed. Multiple traffic demand profiles were assessed on an urban corridor, revealing that USaAM has significant potential. However, our study also shows that as surface traffic demand increases, landing performance deteriorates, while increases in both surface and airborne traffic demands lead to declines in takeoff performance. This paper contributes to the understanding of the feasibility and limitations of integrating fly-drive vehicles into urban transportation systems and is the first step toward a state-of-the-art microsimulation tool for future 3D transportation.