What will traffic look like in the city of the future and how will people move? What role will urban airspace play in this? And what importance will be attached to air taxis, but also to freight transport using drones? In addition to innovative mobility solutions and ideas, it is important to reflect on the mobility of the future from the perspective of the urban population and from a human-centred perspective.
All these aspects are considered in a very comprehensive approach in the im.Fluge project. The project was recently launched and presented at an FFG workshop on 19 January. It is about innovation and intermodular integration of urban air mobility through experience simulation. Low confidence in urban air mobility, lack of concepts for intermodal nodes (What is the best way to get from A to B by which means of transport?) and the risk of promoting climate-damaging mobility patterns (preferring to drive instead of trying to find environmentally friendly alternatives) characterise the current problem situation.
The project im.Fluge models and evaluates future integrated urban air mobility (I-UAM) services for the first time in detail and systematically from the experience perspective of future users. Through VR simulation of use along intermodal travel routes, this enables prototypical development and testing of future confidence-building user:inside interaction with automated flights, attractive processes and spatial characteristics of intermodal transfer points, as well as the adaptation of digital mobility information systems for targeted and sustainable I-UAM use.
The AIT Center for Technology Experience (Peter Fröhlich, Michael Gafert, Lukas Kröninger, Alexander Mirnig, Lennart Motnikar), the Center for Energy with the unit Digital Resilient Cities (Stefan Seer, Johannes Müller, Benjamin Kokoll, Viktoria Sandor, Martin Stubenschrott, Serjoscha Döring) and the FH Joanneum with the Institute of Aeronautics (Arno Fallast) are involved in the project.
More about the project here: https://www.ait.ac.at/themen/capturing-experience/projects/im-fluge
The project is funded by the FFG in the Take Off 2021 call.