Dronecage: A Model for Conflict Resolution in Aerial Corridor Intersections

Abstract

With the growth of uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) traffic, increasing congestion is expected in low-altitude airspace and should be addressed by modern UAV traffic management (UTM) systems. This surge in the density of UAVs poses a significant challenge in regulating UAV traffic effectively to prevent potential collisions. This work addresses the problem of UAV conflicts in the shared airspace, namely, intersection volume specific to the multilane UAV corridors. The intersection volume is modeled as a “dronecage” structure containing horizontal and vertical geofenced corridors. This structure connects the corridor lanes through the geofenced corridor geofences inside the dronecage to effectively direct UAV motion while maintaining safety and enabling conflict-free operation. An approach vector-based guidance logic is proposed that allows UAVs to move along a direction vector pointed toward the exit lane of the UAV and also avoid conflicts with other UAVs at the intercross with the help of an action set. We define conflict cases and present an analysis of the terminal conditions and time delay analysis. The simulation results show the applicability of the algorithm to various cases with a large number of UAVs, successfully resolving the conflicts by generating a solution within a very short time.