Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AiRMOUR (Enabling sustainable AiR MObility in URrban contexts via emergency and medical services)
Reporting period: 2021-01-01 to 2022-06-30
As populations grow, traditional traffic infrastructure is pushed to its limits. Mobility is therefore expanding into the third dimension: the airspace. AiRMOUR is a research and innovation project supporting sustainable air mobility via emergency medical services. As the airspace opens up for new transportation systems, new forms of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), such as passenger drones, are gaining more attention. The EU-funded AiRMOUR project focuses on the research and validation of novel concepts and solutions to make urban air mobility safe, secure, quiet and green, yet also more accessible, affordable and publicly accepted. The project will test both manned and unmanned drones in real-life conditions in 2023. The AiRMOUR project will, along its course, offer valuable UAM tools and drastically advance the understanding of necessary near-future actions – not only by urban communities, but also by operators, regulators, academia and businesses.
As a whole, AiRMOUR has progressed according to plan during its first half, in a satisfactory manner. To highlight some of the most prominent results and achievements, there is a lot to choose from. For example, the consortium is proud of the work and results within the Urban Air Mobility training curriculum, planned within WP6 and delivered via WP8. Three online courses are built for different audiences, from UAM to Emergency medical services to city officials, yet with enough information that each module might be relevant for all stakeholders. One of the online courses has already been delivered, with four modules, reaching over 150 people (250+ registration). This course was (and is, since it is still available as a recording) titled ‘Introducing Urban Air Mobility and its potential to support Emergency Medical Services’ and consisted of four live lectures with 9 speakers from the UAM and medical industries. As another highlight, the work with AiRMOUR replicator cities has been rather remarkable. To enable a wider outreach of project outcomes and demonstrate the scalability of outputs, AiRMOUR established a group of 10+2 Replicator Cities. Achieved was a balanced geographical spread and variety in municipality sizes and levels of prior UAM experience. Applicants needed to describe their motivation and ambition via an application form (2-3.2022). Ten cities were selected via an Open Call and two cities (Stockholm and Dubai via the Dubai Future Foundation) were already identified in the AiRMOUR early plans as associated cities, now formalised in a Replicator role, and all of the cities having started active participation to AiRMOUR. All of the planned deliveries for M1-M18 have been delivered – some of the deliverables with a negligible delay but most by or before the planned delivery time. None of the delays have implicated cascading delays to other tasks, deliveries or milestones. All of the planned milestones have been met, according to plan, mostly on time or with only a minor delay.
Many of the AiRMOUR deliverables are already gaining good traction among the target audiences. These include the UAM EMS Scenarios, the UAM Guidebook and the Foresight analysis - and many more.