Airline Operations Research Group @ NASA Ames

Urban Air Mobility Fleet Manager Gap Analysis and System Design (2020)

NASA's Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Sub-Project is engaged in research to facilitate the introduction of air taxis into the US National Airspace System. Given the history of conventional aircraft operations, it is clear that dispatcher support will be required for UAM. This paper presents a gap analysis, system requirements, and a workstation design concept for the UAM dispatcher or Fleet Manager (FM) position. The gap analysis focuses on the differences between the tasks of the airline dispatcher and those projected for the FM. FM system capabilities and data requirements are then presented as foundations for software development. An initial user interface concept is provided. The FM software uses a single, large display. The system supports prediction, monitoring, and task execution. This paper is intended to support FM software design for future air taxi systems.