10 European cities and regions selected into the AiRMOUR Replicator Group

The AiRMOUR project organised an open call in spring to invite 10 cities and regions to join the development of Urban Air Mobility as Replicators. The Replicators have been selected.

The Replicators will bring their local UAM vision, strategy and activities forward by testing and validating the main outputs of AiRMOUR, such as the UAM GIS tool and UAM Guidebook. They also have the opportunity to use ready-made public acceptance surveys of AiRMOUR and to access prioritised the AiRMOUR training curriculum. In turn, Replicators will assist the AiRMOUR project in gaining a better understanding of how to integrate Urban Air Mobility into legal systems and policies throughout Europe.

In addition to the now selected, the Dubai Future Foundation and the City of Stockholm were identified as Replicators in the planning phase of the project.

‘This is a splendid opportunity for more in-depth cooperation between cities on the Urban Air Mobility topic. The additional validation of project outputs is of crucial importance to understand the effect of different boundary conditions on the scalability of UAM operations, use cases and tools. In turn, AiRMOUR’s documents, tools and trainings will give Replicator cities a running start to adopting UAM. They can use the outputs and lessons of the project to prepare for concrete Urban Air Mobility activities in their own jurisdiction’, says Project manager Renske Martijnse-Hartikka from Forum Virium Helsinki and adds: ‘The AiRMOUR project partners look forward to the cooperation and wish a warm welcome to all the Replicators!’

For further information, please contact:

Forum Virium Helsinki

Renske Martijnse-Hartikka, renske.martijnse-hartikka(at)forumvirium.fi

See the AiRMOUR project’s global reach on the Partners page

Is your city or region keen on stepping in the frontline of Urban Air Mobility development? Join the AiRMOUR Replicator City Group!

The AiRMOUR project invites 10 cities or regions to join the development of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and prepare themselves for a future where drones will be commonplace in urban areas. Replicator cities will bring their local UAM vision, strategy and activities forward by testing and validating the main outputs of the project and assist in gaining a better understanding of how to integrate Urban Air Mobility into legal systems and policies throughout Europe.

There are several ways to contribute and they all will help the Replicator Cities to develop their own UAM activities. For example:

After the closing of Call for Replicators, AiRMOUR’s Executive Management Board will select 10 cities. The aim is that the cities chosen are predominantly European and represent a balanced geographical spread and population size. They do not have to have prior experience with UAM, but need to demonstrate their ambition by applying for the Replicator status by 31.3.2022 or briefly after.

Download the AiRMOUR Replicator City application form and instructions (Word and pdf)

For further information, please contact:

Forum Virium Helsinki

Project Manager Renske Martijnse-Hartikka, renske.martijnse-hartikka(at)forumvirium.fi

AiRMOUR develops an Urban Air Mobility GIS Tool to be used in city planning. The tool will help urban decision makers and city planners to think in three dimensions. The partner responsible for the tool is Robots Expert.

The expected growth of drone logistics and other air mobility inside cities mean that the low-level airspace is no longer a concern only for aviation authorities. As air mobility technology is becoming more mature, urban decision makers and city planners need to think in three dimensions.

“The Geographical Information System (GIS) tool will assist city planners and policy makers to visualise combined ground and air data such as noise, nature protection and mobility hotspots”, says Benoît Larrouturou Country Manager Germany at Robots Expert. “Opening the urban airspace also requires citizens to see value in this type of mobility. The tool is designed to facilitate the engagement of citizens in that regard. Being able to visualise the impact increases the understanding and allows for more fact-based decision making.”

With the new tool, new data layers can be used to enrich the decision-making process as cities decide to make them publicly available. A large number of factors, for example air risk mitigation aspects and flight mission boundary conditions and policy management (e.g., management of noise abatement areas, zones with varying public acceptance, population density charts, landing sites and ground risk zones) can be considered. Some factors are meant to be static, others to be managed in a dynamic way, e.g. bird nesting areas should be protected only during the nesting season.

The GIS Tool is a cornerstone in the AiRMOUR City planning toolbox which also includes a UAM Integration Guidebook and a training package with online courses and Masterclasses.

Most of the data relevant for the tool already exists in AiRMOUR partner cities. Combining it in a meaningful way is not trivial. Also, too much data may sometimes be overwhelming to manage and understand. The national policies on access to data very significantly across Europe, and directly impact the speed of adoption of UAM and the potential usefulness of tools such as the AiRMOUR GIS tool.

“Cities have different data policies. These variations cause challenges when developing tools that are based on their data. Many cities collect a lot of data, but it is not always clear how they want to use the data and what they see as the right use for it. There are concerns about privacy issues, too”, says Larrouturou.

“Nevertheless, cities have come a long way when it comes to acquiring data – a lot exists already.”

UAM GIS Tool: https://uaspace.robots.expert/airmour/
AiRMOUR Deliverable 6.1. GIS Tool user manual

For further information, please contact:

Robots Expert

Benoît Larrouturou, benoit.larrouturou(at)robots.expert