Vertical mobility for transport and rescue service

How can unmanned micro air vehicles safely transport urgent medical supplies and support rescue forces in the search for missing persons? How will vertically launched air cabs bring medical personnel to patients? The new Center for Vertical Mobility (CVM) in Aldenhoven will investigate these and other questions about networked and automated vertical mobility. In cooperation with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and RWTH Aachen University, other university institutes and partners from industry, an interdisciplinary competence and test center has been created that is unique in Germany.

At a symbolic lift-off on the grounds of the Aldenhoven Testing Center (ATC) in May 2022, Ina Brandes, then Minister of Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Prof. Andreas Pinkwart, then Minister of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization and Energy in NRW, together with RWTH Rector Prof. Ulrich Rüdiger, launched the first unmanned flight. All those involved emphasized that the project was an important part of the structural change in the region.

"Mobility is a key component by which the future development of population and economic structures in rural areas is sustainably influenced and shaped. Vertical mobility has the potential to get to any location and provide transport or traffic services without the need for special infrastructure on the ground, at any time and in any weather," explains Prof. Dieter Moormann, head of the Institute of Flight System Dynamics at RWTH Aachen University. Launch and monitoring of the premiere flight as well as the transmission of image data were ensured via Vodafone's 5G network, which is being expanded as "5G.air" for highly dynamic aviation applications at CVM.

The work focuses on research, development and operation of vertically launchable unmanned aerial vehicles, for example for transporting urgent goods, for data acquisition/digital production and for supporting emergency services. It also involves testing safe automated operation of vertical takeoff-capable aerial cabs. All air systems take off and land vertically. A runway is not required for this, but a so-called U-space as airspace in which simultaneous operation of these air traffic participants is possible under safe conditions, even with today's usual manned aviation. The CVM thus sees itself as a complement to the research activities at the Aeropark Aachen-Merzbrück and at the Innovation Airport in Mönchengladbach.

The test center is also dedicated to researching and optimizing so-called airborne wind power plants, which generate energy efficiently and sustainably using high-altitude winds far above the blade tips of today's wind turbines. In the spirit of the energy transition, the "Center for Vertical Mobility" is also developing the "EnerGlider" - a kind of high-tech kite that will operate a generator on the ground at heights of up to 1,000 meters via a cable, where it will generate electricity efficiently and sustainably. The first devices are to go into regular operation this year.

The NRW Ministry of Transport, represented at the lift-off by the current NRW Minister for Culture and Science, Ina Brandes, sees the potential for the project to become a blueprint. "North Rhine-Westphalia is the home of Mobility 4.0, with self-driving buses in regular service, automated inland waterway vessels, a statewide e-tariff for buses and trains, and quiet and emission-free e-airplanes taking off from Aachen-Merzbrück. Now, in this excellent research region around the RWTH and the Rhenish Revier, there is Germany's first test center for transport drones and autonomously operated air cabs that can take off and land vertically quickly and in very confined spaces. The new Center for Vertical Mobility strengthens North Rhine-Westphalia's role as a pioneer in the development of the air transport of the future. I am particularly pleased that research is also being carried out on aircraft for emergencies to save human lives."
At the opening ceremony, Prof. Andreas Pinkwart expressed his conviction that tomorrow's aviation will be "not only more climate-friendly and quieter," but will also provide important impetus for many other applications across sectors: "The more efficient use of high-altitude winds holds great potential for the expansion of renewable energies."
The Institute of Flight System Dynamics is already involved with other institutes at the university in research projects on innovative air mobility. These are funded by the federal government or the EU. These include the projects "EULE" for European transport solutions for medical goods, "Grenzflug+" for cross-border searches for injured persons, "SAFIR-med", also for medical care, and "FlutNetz", a project for emergency care for snakebite victims from flooded areas in Bangladesh. At CVM, this research is being merged with other projects. The future of vertical mobility promises to be exciting.