Sensitivity analysis of urban air mobility aircraft design and operations including battery charging and swapping

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an evolving concept of passenger transportation providing on-demand flights within metropolitan environments, wherefore typically fully electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft are designed. Due to the underlying battery energy constraints, the design of UAM aircraft is very sensitive. Apart from the design considerations, the impact of aircraft operations on the entire UAM transport network must be examined. As there is no data from real-world operations available, this research article utilizes a system of systems simulation framework combining aircraft design with an agent-based simulation. The underlying approach offers the possibility of studying several parameters concerning UAM aircraft design and operations. In a case study focused on intra-city transport, aircraft design aspects regarding the payload capacity, the mission profile, and the reserve requirement are studied for a multirotor configuration. Furthermore, the aircraft operations aspects are focused on the turnaround procedures, the passenger demand, and the cruise speed. The multi-level sensitivity analysis ranging from the subsystem over the system of interest to the system of systems level allows us to trace the most sensitive aspects. Especially, the sensitivity analysis of battery fast-charging and swapping shows the importance of the holistic system of systems investigations for the successful development of UAM aircraft and services.