Multidisciplinary Optimization of Advanced Air Mobility Fleet Operations

AIAA SciTech Forum

Abstract

With the continuous development of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle designs and ongoing development of both battery technologies and regulatory framework for autonomous transportation, there is potential for various Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) services. In order to enable high utilization of AAM fleet operations, optimization regarding cost-efficiency is required. In previous research, optimization was carried out either on vehicle level for eVTOL designs with given mission requirements or on fleet level for total cost minimization and strategic planning with given eVTOL concept data. However, these optimizations are local optima in the context of AAM system evaluation as cost dependencies between vehicle design adjustments and fleet costs and revenue within an overall mobility network are neglected. We aim to address this research gap by introducing a multidisciplinary optimization between strategic planning of AAM, cost-efficient operations and eVTOL vehicle design. The multidimensional decision variables are modeled in multivariable and semi-empirical regressions. Analyses are carried out for an intermodal AAM scenario in Germany using agent-based simulation. The results are evaluated regarding robustness, system costs, surrogate modeling, and vehicle design. It is found that a multidisciplinary optimization is feasible, whereby the impact of the air transport system including demand data on the overall profit is greater than vehicle optimizations to existing concepts. This is particularly relevant for cost-efficient future scenarios as both high cruise speed and a maximum design range within the study scenario maximize profit. As pricing strategy, a base price with a low kilometer-specific ticket price is cost-efficient in all cases considered. The vehicle design also shows further optimization potential for mass reductions through scenario-adapted battery and structural weight optimizations. A relaxation of the design range is cost-efficient for conservative technology assumptions only. The most significant sensitivity analyzed is the utilization of passenger pooling of the eVTOL vehicle fleet, hence correlation between additional waiting times and fleet utilization should be further investigated for future work.

Authors 2

1. Ansgar Kirste Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University

2. Eike Stumpf Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University