RP1:
During the initial reporting period, the consortium dedicated concerted efforts to lay the groundwork for our collaborative venture. We established internal processes in line with agile methodology tailored to facilitate effective international cooperation. Recognizing the complexity of our endeavor, we dissected selected business cases, delving into detailed use cases and scenarios to ensure a comprehensive understanding of our objectives.
We defined operational assumptions and analyzed the operational environment. We focused on autonomy enabling technologies and UTM services maturation including requirements definition to progress toward achieving TRL7 maturity.
Moreover, our proactive engagement with regulatory bodies contributed to early identification of operational challenges. By integrating regulatory considerations into our project plans from the outset, we aimed to navigate potential obstacles and foster a conducive environment for progress.
Major outcome to our approach was the meticulous documentation of our endeavors in contractual deliverables which was shared with SJU in January 2024.
RP2:
During second reporting period, following progress was made towards main project’s objectives.
All three technical clusters continued in progressive refinements of their use cases and operational environment detailed definitions, as well as in development, integration, and initial validation steps for both developed solutions. Discussion with SJU experts, Advisory Board members as well as progress of parallel projects (e.g. EUREKA, IRINA) is also progressively incorporated. This evolution is currently reflected in working versions of contractual deliverables and related project-internal documents and will be concluded through final validation flights and in the final deliveries. (RP3).
Industry partners also significantly progressed with maturation, enhancements and initial validations of developed automation enablers. This included work on:
• Decision engine and Contingency management,
• Flight efficient trajectory management for approach,
• Navigation for pilot supervised Approach & Landing, and
• Ground Control Station.
Finally, a remarkable progress was achieved in development and maturity of Air/Ground integration between the ground-control station (GCS) and UTM-services, specifically concerning the Network Identification, Flight Authorization, U-Plan Processing, Procedural Interface with ATC and Geo-Awareness services. This integration was also evaluated and demonstrated in real environment through flight testing in Austria.
OperA project continuously utilizes and benefits from the C&D&E communication channels set up in the previous reporting period and share intermediate results in various dissemination and exploitation events for example through U-space Coordination Cell.
