BERKELEY, October 9, 2023 - As the digital revolution has transformed ground transportation with the likes of Global Positioning Systems, ride-sharing, and ubiquitous delivery services, the sky is now the next frontier. The imminent introduction of such novel aircraft as personal air taxis, autonomous delivery drones, and other unmanned flying machines has the research community, industry, and government agencies envisioning how best to organize tomorrow’s skies.
Representatives from these three sectors – academic researchers, aircraft manufacturers and drone startups, and federal authorities and regulators – convened at the UC Berkeley campus September 12-13 to develop a new roadmap for the digital transformation of airspace systems.
Organized by leaders from the NASA Ames Research Center and eminent computing science researchers from UC Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the “Workshop on Clean Slate Approaches to Crewed and Uncrewed Air Traffic Operations” described how AI/machine learning, IoT sensor data, and cloud computing will digitally transform Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) systems with automated service models for National Airspace System (NAS) architectures.
Wide-ranging presentations and discussions delved into the design of economic incentives, pricing innovations, and other market mechanisms; metrics needed for new learning-based systems; and integrated air traffic management technologies – all while lifting up safety and equitable access as preeminent goals.
“One thing about designing a market is the tension between individual utility and the good of society,” said Shankar Sastry, Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley, co-director of the C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute, and one of the workshop organizers. “There are lots of societal goals – for example, to reduce pollution. But individual users just want to go where they want to go as fast as they can. How do you design market mechanisms
to promote the social good?”
The workshop highlighted the critical need to bring all stakeholders to the table to advance the vision of digitally transformed airspace systems.
“Collaborative innovation is the way to go to transform the future,” said Parimal Kopardekar, Mission Integration Manager for the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Mission at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field in Silicon Valley, who presented opening and closing remarks and next steps.