X-TEAM D2D: eXTEnded AtM for Door2Door travel

Door to door European connectivity in up to four hours

The X-TEAM D2D project is a two-year research ending in the summer of 2022. Dr. Miguel Mujica Mota (Associate Professor from the AUAS) is the principal investigator. Within the department of Aviation Management, he and his team will work with six international partners to develop a set of formal methods and multimodal system simulation models to enable door-to-door connectivity in up to four hours between any location in Europe, and to evaluate their future operation. The project has a total budget of EUR 1 million from a Horizon (H2020) / SESAR grant.

Developing and validating a Concept of Operations

The X-TEAM D2D project aims to define, develop and initially validate a Concept of Operations (ConOps) for the seamless integration of ATM and Air Transport into an overall intermodal network. This network will include other available transportation means such as surface and water. The proposed connectivity approach will also be in compliance with the target assigned by the ACARE SRIA FlightPath 2050 goals.

The project focuses on an intermodal transport network serving Urban and Extended Urban (up to Regional) mobility. It takes the transportation and passenger service scenarios envisaged for the upcoming decades into account, with baseline (2025), intermediate (2035) and final (2050) time horizons. The X-TEAM D2D project will:

• Provide and initially validate the target ConOps, which will encompass transportation platform integration concepts as well as innovative seamless mobility as a service, including ATM concepts.

• Preliminarily evaluate the developed ConOps against already-existing, specifically-defined and applicable KPAs and KPIs, implementing both qualitative and quantitative performance assessment approaches.

• Develop a simulation-based platform to validate the proposed concept. This platform will consider the most relevant elements of future transport, including mode-mode interfaces, a high-level network model, and a passenger-centric paradigm.

• Validate the proposed ConOps with the simulation platform.

• Provide a description of the semantic values of future KPIs and a diagnosis of the ConOps’ inefficiencies.

• Develop a set of multimodal system computer models to evaluate the ConOps of the multimodal transport of the future. More specifically, the team will use these models to evaluate future facilities and transport modes such as hyperloops, flying taxis, etc.

A replicable concept design

The platform’s conceptual design will be replicable by formalizing the relationships of the key elements through techniques such as Coloured Petri Nets or UML. The different interface ‘hot areas’ identified will be formalized through Coloured Petri nets or similar formalisms. The multimodal methodology developed by the research group in recent years will also be used to simulate the systems. However, we will go one step beyond as computer capabilities are limited and the methodology should be adapted/modified for large scale simulation.

A simulationalist’s dream project

“The European Commission wants to invest in projects that look at ways to make the transport system more efficient,” says Dr. Mota. “And this is any simulationist’s dream project. We will be evaluating the future operations of multimodal transports such as hyperloops and flying drone taxis to connect with airports. For the first time, we will be using large-scale simulations to evaluate the modes of operation of these types of transport.”

Impact on decision-makers and education

This project will demonstrate the potential of future technology for enhanced European door-to-door travel. More specifically, it will help decision-makers and the general public to understand the potential of technologies such as hyperloops and flying taxis. As such, it will enable decision-makers to realize potential improvements in the system. At the same time, it will contribute to the educational community by serving as a case study for combining simulation, AI and data mining techniques. The project will also create deliverables for international conferences (such as the Winter Simulation Conference, Sesar Innovation Days, MULTILOG or EUROSIM) and reports to the European Commission.

Funding and six international partners

This project is funded by Horizon (H2020) and SESAR. It involves six international partners:

1 CENTRO ITALIANO RICERCHE AEROSPAZIALI SCPA (Italy)
2 INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY AND INNOVATION (Italy)
3 D-FLIGHT S.P.A. (Italy)
4 DEUTSCHES ZENTRUM FÜR LUFT - UND RAUMFAHRT EV (Germany)
5 SIEĆ BADAWCZA ŁUKASIEWICZ-INSTYTUT LOTNICTWA (Poland)
6 AMSTERDAM UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES (the Netherlands)

An advisory board composed mainly of experts from IGAMT will also participate.

SESAR Innovation Days 7-10 December 2020:

For more information, see SESAR Innovation Days .