UAV collision risk as part of U-space Demand and Capacity Balancing

The implementation of U-space will facilitate large-scale operations of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in urban environments. However, the capacity for permitting UAV flights in urban airspace is not unlimited. The DACUS project is developing a concept for balancing capacity and demand for U-space airspace, in line with operational requirements which are unique to the UAV domain. This paper focuses on exploring the role of collision risk between UAVs as part of this process. A collision risk model was developed and tested in a series of experiments as a means of identifying how many UAVs can operate in a given area without exceeding pre-defined risk thresholds. We present the methodology behind this model, and support our claims based on results gathered from some initial experiments. Results provide some initial estimations of airspace capacity values for urban environments, which will be further refined in future experiments.