Airspace Designs and Operations for UAS Traffic Management at Low Altitude

As the usability of and demand for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have increased, it has become necessary to establish a UAS traffic management (UTM) system for efficient UAV operations at low altitudes. To avoid collisions with ground obstacles, other UAVs, and manned aircraft, in building a safe path, the UTM needs to determine the time and space allocated to each flight. Ideas for discretizing and structuring airspace in various forms have been proposed to enhance the efficiency of system operation and improve traffic congestion through effectual airspace allocation. Additionally, various methods of allocating UAVs to structured unit spaces have been studied in the literature. In this paper, the methods and structural designs for allocating airspace that have appeared in related studies are classified into several types, and their strengths and weaknesses are analyzed. The structured airspace designs are categorized into three models: Air-Matrix, Air-Network, and Air-Tube, and analyzed according to their sub-structures and temporal allocation methods. In addition, a quantitative analysis is conducted by re-categorizing the structured airspace and operation methods and building their combinations.