Intersection Planning for Multilane Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Traffic Management

Unmanned aerial system (UAS) traffic management of airspace is a domain that demands strategic management of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for smooth and conflict-free movement in the uncharted low-altitude G airspace. In the context of the previously proposed CORRIDRONE structure, UAV traffic has to be organized in a shared volume of airspace connecting two or more corridors for a network of multilane corridors, resulting in the formation of aerial intersections. In this work, an intersection planning algorithm is proposed that aims to provide no-conflict paths to the UAVs inside the intersection volume. Paths are modeled as a function of the lanes involved in the transition, and conflict resolution is achieved by changing lanes. Optimized solutions are found among the conflicted UAV paths, such that only a few paths need modifying, optimizing the number of lane changes and time spent in the intersection. Simulation results, including random starting time intervals, various UAV sizes, corridor sizes, and differing numbers of lanes in intersecting corridors, are presented to demonstrate the concepts discussed in the paper.