Turbulence-aware UAV path planning in urban environments

Abstract

Wind turbulence is a critical factor for the safety of Urban Air Mobility operations. In urban environments, buildings and structures can generate irregular wind currents that may compromise the stability of aircraft. This poses a high risk due to the potential severity of an accident in these areas. For these reasons, this paper introduces a risk-aware path planning solution for Urban Air Mobility applications, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations that predict atmospheric wind at urban environments. The generated algorithm provides safe and efficient routes, avoiding flight through regions with significant turbulence. A practical case study was conducted to demonstrate the strong capabilities of the proposed solution