An Agent-based 3D Urban Air Network for the Freight Distribution Problem

Advances in new electric aerial vehicles have encouraged research on pioneering Urban Air Mobility (UAM) scenarios, proposed as eco-sustainable solutions capable of delivering services for passengers, goods, and emergency operations —while simultaneously reducing traffic congestion, travel times, and environmental impacts. These aerial-based services require the support of a suitable Urban Air Network (UAN), which must comply with a set of constraints defined by the specific characteristics of this emerging form of mobility. In this framework, one promising application domain is last mile freight transportation, which is the focus of this paper. Aerial freight transport will benefit from the use of flying vehicles moving also along the third (vertical) dimension to fulfill the basic requirement of connecting origin and destination points while ensuring both safe aerial routes and adequate vehicle separations. To achieve this, the 3D UAN is considered, modeled as a multi-layered structure composed of several 2D graphs –one for each layer– allowing for vehicle routing within the lower airspace. Each link in the network is associated with a cost function, enabling the computation of shortest paths between origin/destination pairs. Moreover, the links are dynamic and can be activated or deactivated to reflect varying capacity constraints. To ensure both safe aerial routes and adequate vehicle separations between flying vehicles moving along the links of the network, in addition to the 3D-UAN model an agent-based framework has been set, which is based on a distributed architecture. The preliminary results from a simulated test case offer promising insights, which will contribute to shape the design of future urban aerial logistics systems.