The CORUS-XUAM consortium is a large-scale European project, led by SESAR JU and funded under Horizon Europe 2020, dedicated to Urban Air Mobility (UAM). This two-year project aims at defining and testing new services called U-Space, which are required for these new types of air mobility to work safely and efficiently, a key issue for smart and sustainable mobility in the future.
Indeed, the field of UAM is wide because it includes new means of transport such as drones, eVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft) and other types of remotely piloted aircraft, clearly identified by the European Commission, whose objective is to manage their integration into the airspace. Therefore, UAM requires the development of airspace management structures, operational procedures and shared services.
CORUS-XUAM is consequently demonstrating aircraft operations, both manned and unmanned, using U-Space services in urban and interurban environments, aiming to develop an operational interface between Air Navigation Services (ANS) and operators of UAVs and other remotely piloted aircraft.
The expected result is the emergence and promotion of an operational offer within the next ten years. The first milestone will be the implementation of pre-commercialisation services to be demonstrated during the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
With this in mind, the project saw its first field tests on the experimental platform at the Pontoise-Corneilles en Vexins aerodrome during the week of 14 February 2022. As a matter of fact, M3 Systems, Hologarde and the ADP Group have jointly conducted a test session of the UAV traffic management solution in low altitude airspace (UTM) developed by Hologarde. This was made possible thanks to the intervention of BOREAL SAS which carried out flights of its unmanned aerial vehicle BOREAL, detectable (in accordance with national regulations) and detected by Hologarde’s collaborative drone management solution.
The permanent communication between the USSP (U-Space Service Provider – Hologarde) and the BOREAL telepilots has successfully demonstrated the transmission of information in real time, as well as alerts such as flight plan departures, exceeding of maximum heights or penetration of prohibited airspace. The triggering of these alerts makes it possible to project into phase 2 of the project, i.e. conflict resolution within the airspace of the first future European Vertiport (docking station for eVOTLs), which should be installed in Pontoise by the British company Skyports from June 2022.
Both belonging to the MISTRAL group, the two companies M3 Systems and BOREAL SAS are linked by very strong synergies which have enabled the CORUS-XUAM project to benefit from the skills of both companies: the first is recognised for its expertise in air traffic management (ATM) and the second for its unmanned aerial vehicle integrating advanced technology to communicate with various private operators called U-space Service Providers (USSP), including Hologarde.
CORUS-XUAM is composed of nineteen partners and eleven related third parties, coordinated by EUROCONTROL and composed of ADP, AOPA UK, ASLOGIC, DFS, DLR, Droniq GmbH, DSNA, ENAIRE, ENAV, HEMAV, INDRA, LFV Group, NATS, Pipistrel VS, SkeyDrone, Unifly nv, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Volocopter, M3 Systems, Ehang Holding GmbH, Hologarde, CRIDA, D-FLIGHT, NAIS, DTA, IBG, Linköping University, Citymesh, SABCA.
Project video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6WEr5NyYr0&feature=youtu.be
This project has received funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101017682.
