APRÈN. Portal de la producció docent del professorat de la UPC

High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) are an emerging technology with a huge potential to transform key sectors such as telecommunications, earth observation, and security. These platforms operate at higher altitudes than conventional aircraft, bringing benefits such as extended coverage and greater operational flexibility. However, despite their potential, there exists a large uncertainty regarding the legal and regulatory frameworks that regulate their use. Much of the current regulation is based on the adaptation of legislation designed for other types of aircraft, such as drones and balloons, leading to significant legal gaps and implementation difficulties. This project is motivated by the clear lack of a specific regulatory framework for HAPs, which has created obstacles to their safe integration into airspace. Consequently, the main objective of this study is to analyse the existing regulatory frameworks at the international, European, and national levels, identifying the gaps and inconsistencies that currently limit the deployment of HAPs. In addition, this thesis aims to provide a comprehensive guide describing the current requirements for performing HAP missions, ensuring airworthiness, and meeting airspace regulations. The research begins with an exploration of the current state of HAP technology, looking at its historical evolution and different applications. After analysing the current regulatory landscape, focusing on a comparison of the regulations that apply to drones and balloons and assessing how they could be adapted to HAP, a comparative analysis of the international, European, and Spanish regulatory frameworks is carried out, highlighting not only the differences between them but also the need for a harmonised legislative framework. The absence of such a framework creates significant uncertainty for stakeholders in the industry, limiting the potential of HAPs to fully develop and contribute to these key sectors. The thesis concludes that although there are promising signs of future progress such as ongoing European projects to harmonise airspace regulation, it is essential to develop a specific regulatory framework tailored to the unique characteristics and operational challenges of HAPs. It is suggested that possible future work should ideally be carried out by these regulatory bodies and should focus on improving current proposals and continue to align regulatory efforts at the international and national levels.

The aviation sector is experiencing continuous growth driven by factors such as globalization and increasing demand for air travel. This increases the likelihood of in-flight conflict, and therefore affects safety. Being able to predict these scenarios is relevant for the safety and efficiency of air transport. In this context, this project aims to understand all aspects of conflict generation in airspace along with the development of an algorithm for strategic detection and resolution of conflicts between aircraft trajectories generated by DYNAMO, which is a trajectory prediction and optimization engine developed by the ICARUS research group at Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), this program can compute trajectories using realistic and accurate weather aircraft performance data. A study has been carried out to better understand which algorithms are commonly employed to perform conflict detection and resolution operations and implement the best fitting model. The first part of the project explains the regulatory aspect of aircraft conflict and the current methods to detect and avoid such conflict, along with a basic description of the types of algorithms used by researchers. In the second part, an thorough step by step explanation of the algorithm and methodology developed in this project and its contributions to the research project it is aimed for, along with ideas for future lines of improvement. Overall, the project is aimed to be an addition to DYNAMO to analyze the trajectory prediction and optimization performed by the program generate any conflict, and if so, solve it.

The Earth's magnetic field is constantly changing, directly affecting the orientation of the magnetic north. This rate of change varies by location, causing airports to readjust run- way orientations, leading to inaccuracies and high economic costs. This study will assess the possibility of switching to the true north reference system. It will include a historical overview of why magnetic north is currently used and evaluate the implementation of true north, considering factors such as the rate of change at various airports, costs of updating runway aeronautical information, and a statistical study of 64,816 airports to examine key indicators. Throughout aeronautics-focused courses, the inaccuracies and high mainte- nance tasks associated with the magnetic north reference system have been highlighted. This thesis aims to address these issues by compiling all proposed ideas about imple- menting the true north reference system. It will explore why the magnetic north system is used, the problems it introduces, how the true north system works, and how it solves these problems. Additionally, the thesis will quantify the issues and analyze key indicators to demonstrate why the true north reference system can be better in the aviation context.

The concept of implementing air taxis has been discussed for a long time, both in large cities and between nearby cities. This idea mainly arises due to the long travel times caused by traffic congestion or the lack of good ground transportation connections. This project aims to study the feasibility and design of a heliport in the Lleida area, as it is a viable option for the present. Additionally, a final chapter discusses the possibility of converting the heliport into a vertiport in the future, an option that has gained significant traction in recent years and continues to be researched due to Urban Air Mobility (UAM). The initial proposal for this heliport focuses on providing an air taxi service that significantly reduces the daily travel time between Lleida and nearby cities, offering a faster and more efficient solution for regional mobility. A feasibility analysis is conducted on various aspects such as the reference aircraft, the most suitable location, the availability of airspace, and the environmental impact on the area. Next, the heliport is designed based on air-side requirements, explaining the necessary technical and operational needs and providing an estimate of the initial investment required. It is also verified that there is sufficient demand and, more importantly, the capacity to satisfy this demand efficiently and safely. Finally, it is ensured that in the hypothetical case that UAM or intercity travel with VTOL/eVTOL becomes a reality in the short to medium term, our heliport would have the capacity to adapt and integrate into this air taxi model, thereby confirming its long-term relevance and sustainability.

The following project involves the design of a software capable of simulating take-off and landing operations to verify runway length requirements. To design the software, different mathematical models are studied and adapted according to the needs of the different phases into which both landing and take-off are divided. The simulations will be tested under different conditions of mass, weather, and wind.

The stand allocation problem is a main problem in all airports and has to be solved every day without exception. The rapid increase in the air traffic and its continued growth during the last years has made this problem a major issue in all airports. This is mainly caused because in most of the cases the airports are not growing as fast as the air traffic. In addition, in the past years, airlines had tried to reduce the time that aircraft are on ground in order to maximize their benefits causing the stand allocation to become a major concern. This has produced the necessity of having a system capable of solving this problem taking into account different constraints and preferences that can vary on each airport or between the different airlines. In this project, two algorithms are designed and compared. The purpose is to see if it's possible to create a software capable of solving a stand allocation problem using one of this two algorithms. The algorithms that are used are a mixed-integer linear programming algorithm and a genetic algorithm. The development of the linear programming algorithm has been more or less straightforward due to the simplicity of the used library. In contrast, the implementation of the genetic algorithm has not been that easy because some changes on the basic functions of the algorithm had to be made. In order to do all these changes some easy problems were designed and tested increasing the complexity gradually in order to find the strong and weak points of the algorithm. After designing the algorithms and improving them, the algorithms were tested with different invented and real airport cases. The genetic algorithm was able to find solutions for all the cases. In contrast, the linear programming algorithm stuck in problems involving big amounts of data. It can be said that the initial objective has been accomplished for the genetic algorithm and, less successfully, for the linear programming algorithm.

In this study we will carry out a detailed analysis of the revenue sources of modern airports in the European context, paying special attention to the revenues generated through non-aeronautical activities. We will analyze in depth how regulations have evolved both in the USA and in Europe, we will review the different airport ownership models and we will carry out a study on which indicators play an important role or not in the percentage of non-aeronautical revenues of an airport.

The growing use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) poses challenges in integrating these vehicles into an already congested airspace. Adequate regulations and protocols are crucial to ensuring the safety and efficiency of these operations. Thus, arises the concept of U-space, encompassing technologies and services to facilitate safe drone access to airspace, addressing this new challenge. In this context, this project aims to advance research and application of U-space in Catalonia. The study evaluates risks in Catalan airspace, designates U-space airspace, and proposes specific implementations of U-space services in Catalonia. This thesis explores the evolution of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and the emergence of U-space, referencing European SESAR projects as the foundation for this research, along with regulations from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Key U-space elements, from airspace structure to involved actors and necessary services per current regulations, are detailed. The evaluation of Catalan airspace follows Eurocontrol¿s guidelines (U-space Airspace Risk Assessment), analyzing both air and ground risks. This analysis, based on an initial inventory of relevant risks and structured geographical data, serves as a preliminary study for potential areas of interest. The municipalities of Lleida, due to its low operational density but high population density, and Tarragona, a region with a more complex airspace and critical areas, are selected for detailed risk analysis. The risks in these cities are analyzed in more detail, correlating the detected areas and specific requirements of the zone with the necessary U-space services, providing an initial proposal for U-space airspace in each of the municipalities. The conclusion outlines the main results, achievements, and limitations. Additionally, recommendations for future work in this field are provided.

The objective of this project is to analyze the capacity of the airport system and how its limits are being assimilated as a direct consequence of the continuous increase in demand. This analysis will address the main determinants of airport capacity, as well as different theoretical proposals to address the effects of airport system saturations in order to find viable solutions to improve both the capacity and efficiency of some airports, enhancing the passenger experience and the business performance of airlines. Finally, the case of the Josep Tarradellas Barcelona - El Prat airport will be studied and the feasibility of implementing some of the ideas proposed in this paper will be analyzed.

Long queues are part of any passenger's travel experience. When arriving at an airport, one is used to waiting in long lines and waiting times, factors which directly impact on a pleasant travel experience. Such is the importance of this event, that IATA defines several Level of Service (LOS) according to the characteristics of each process, ranging from Excellent (free flow of passengers and top quality comfort levels) to Unacceptable (crossing of passenger flows, system breakdowns, and poor comfort levels), according to IATA¿s Airport Development Reference Manual 9th edition, aiming to achieve a mid-level with good LOS that meets passengers' expectations and a terminal building that is not over-dimensioned, which means that these LOS take into account not only waiting times, but space too. This project focuses on two of the most problematic processes on the airport's land-side: check-in area and security checks. Through raw data collection, the bottleneck phenomenon will be explained by making a comparison between real flight data collected from AENA's webpage and a subsequent in-person verification at Barcelona's airport, and IATA's ADRM guidelines. Then, various strategies to solve this problem will be described in order to understand the possible configurations and effects of each of them. Real airport applications will also be addressed in the project, in order to know how other airports are dealing with these issues. Also, some digitalization solutions will be taken into account. The objective of the project is not to make a statistical analysis of the demand, nor address the space requirements for these processes, but rather to check the appearance of queues due to the strategy followed by Josep Tarradellas Barcelona - El Prat airport on a given day and time of the year, and to investigate possible solutions to ease this phenomenon.

In the last decades, air transport has become more accessible and the demand is increasingly growing over the years. Airports and airspace are becoming congested and have to handle a very high volume of flights, therefore facing the need to increase their capacity and constantly improve their operational system. The major challenge for airport stakeholders in those situations close to saturation is to achieve maximum operational efficiency and predictability, together with improved capacity and cost efficiencies. Nevertheless, airport partners often work in a divided and isolated manner, operating independent systems, and this lack of common situational awareness can lead to widespread dysfunctions and inefficiencies. Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) is a solution within the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) programme, promoted by EUROCONTROL, ACI-Europe, IATA and CANSO, that aims to improve the operational efficiency and predictability of airports, enhance traffic flow management and reduce congestion by making more efficient use of existing capacity and resources. These objectives are achieved by encouraging airport stakeholders to work together in a transparent and collaborative manner, through the exchange of timely and accurate information. This project aims to explain the A-CDM concept and its complete implementation process at an airport. Further, an assessment of the current status of A-CDM at Zurich and Amsterdam-Schiphol airports and an analysis of the implementation process has been conducted. Moreover, in order to evaluate the possibility of expanding the concept to nonEuropean airports, the case of Mexico City airport, where the implementation attempt was not successful, has been also analysed. Finally, the existing and future systems that complement or continue the implementation of the A-CDM has been studied. This study has been conducted on the basis of information provided by the Head of Flight OPS Engineering at Zurich airport, an interview with the A-CDM Process Manager at Amsterdam-Schiphol, and a series of interviews with a consultant who was in charge of the implementation at Mexico airport. The main conclusions drawn are that A-CDM brings many quantitative and qualitative benefits in managing the turnaround process, predictability, reduction of taxi time, emissions and delay reduction, among many others. Nevertheless, it is a complex process that requires a lot of collaboration and knowledge in procedures, and in some cases, a lot of time and investments. It is therefore very important to evaluate the decision of implementation taking into account the congestion and capacity levels of the airport. It has also been concluded that European airports have both technological and cultural advantages for CDM implementation, therefore, at present, they are the most favourable to be A-CDM airports. Furthermore, it was found that A-CDM, despite being a standardised Eurocontrol process, has a strong local factor and adapts to the conditions and needs of each particular airport.

Technological change is at the root of the economic and social progress that has been experienced since the first industrial revolution. In this manner, technology is increasingly present in our society because it improves people's quality of life. As a consequence, over the last few years, new kinds of technology have also been introduced in airports allowing digital transformation in them. The implementation of technologies in airports continues to be an aspect in development today. Despite great technological advances, many airports still do not enjoy fully digital operation of their landside and airside processes. This produces a difference in the level of digitization between airports that is often justified by the different necessities of capacity, economic resources or sustainability awareness. However, the vast majority of airports consider a digitization plan to be carried out in the coming years. Artificial intelligence in all its variants, electrically powered autonomous vehicles, drones and biometric systems are some of the technological trends that airports incorporate as part of their new infrastructure. These trends aim to change the way of operating and managing airport activities. This project allows the reader to understand the usefulness and performance of the technologies that guide airports to become smart airports or airports 4.0. In this way, the digitization of the most developed smart airports is evaluated and compared with proximity airports. Likewise, possible changes are exposed as recommendations that would benefit the different tasks on the airside and the passengers flow management in the terminal building.

The accessibility of the Aeronautical Information is available in format such as AIXM, these formats are most suitable for trained eyes and intended for the purpose of Aerodrome monitoring, Landing & Takeoff procedures and Navigation systems on full fledge devices designed and built for AIXM only. Let's say if we want to develop an Aerodrome game where we can land an aeroplane in an airport whose characteristics are close to the real ones on a cross platform friendly format, it is not possible with the current available formats. In this thesis we take advantage of ENAIRE Spain's Air Navigation and Aeronautical Information service provider, availing Aeronautical Information Publication service https://aip.enaire.es/AIP/#LEPA/LESJ, where they provide data regarding to Aerodromes in Spain in the form of PDF and CSVs. The pdfs are sually used by pilots and co pilots as a reference to identify hotspots, taxiways status and obstacles inside the aerodrome, CSV files serve as a data to feed GIS platforms such as QGIS and mostly used by researchers and other people who are involved in aeronautical domain to identify the obstacles in and around the Aerodromes. We used Python libraries such as Pandas, Camelot to extract and convert data from PDF which are in the form of tables. The extracted information which contains Geo Locations and other critical information such as area, altitude and Runways important properties such as Clear way, Strip dimensions & geographic reference point is combined with the Obstacles data such as Geo Location and other characteristics such as altitude, Lighting, Marking and other available information of obstacles such as Trees, vegetation, Signal Towers into a geojson format. The Generated output geojson files are viewed on a 2-Dimensional map on http://geojson.io/#map=2/20.0/0.0, which has two split panes where we can view the geojson information and its geolocation against each other

Aeromedical rescue has been around for more than 100 years. They are being implemented in more and more countries or areas of the world and this is a consequence of the constant population growth. This growth affects both urban and rural areas differently. The latter receive less variety of health aid, due to a lack of hospitals and specialized doctors or because they do not have it directly. Public or private, there are already many organizations in charge of providing these Medevac services, which includes the rescue of a patient in a medical emergency, providing medical care to this patient during the journey until he/she arrives at the hospital. It has been proven that the implementation of these services reduces the mortality rate by shortening the emergency response time and stabilizing the patient during transfer. However, there are still many areas without this medical coverage and the organizations that offer these services are very different from one another. They can be public or private organizations, operate in urban or remote areas, have a fleet and a specific base, etc. This is the origin of the proposal to continue researching this subject by means of this final thesis: Aerial Health Care system for remote areas and under-developed regions. One of the objectives is to seek and contrast information to understand the differences and similarities between the different types of air medical services: what services are offered, what crew is needed, the special equipment carried by the fleet and the type of air bases used. The aim is to analyze the aeronautical part of the operation, the requirements and needs that must be met for the rescues to be a success. Finally, the last objective is to be able to carry out a preliminary study simulating the implementation of an air medical service in an area that requires this assistance.

This project is based on the idea that Urban Air Mobility (UAM) could define a new mobility paradigm and be a breakthrough for the aviation sector. The objective is to evaluate the possible implementation of this UAM in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (BMA). Initially, a brief demographic study of Barcelona is carried out followed by an analysis of the mobility patterns in the city of Barcelona. Then, based on a comparative study of the eVTOLs currently available on the market, one has been chosen as the most suitable example of air taxi to circulate in the BMA. After identifying two possible approaches for Urban Air Mobility, the extension of the affected area has been analyzed. Various elements such as the city poles of attraction and the connectivity with other urban transports have been taken into consideration to find the potential locations for the proposed vertiports. Once the vertiports were located, a study of the restricted areas and possible obstacles was conducted in order to design the network of air routes that the air taxis will follow. As a result, it has been possible to compare the gain in time that this urban transport has compared to the private transport. An analysis about the capacity of this network of air routes has been done, in order to check if this new urban air mobility is not only beneficial for the individual, saving time, but also for society as a whole, decongesting the entrance corridors to Barcelona and reducing pollution within the area. Finally, a study of the operating cost of this transport system and the cost to be paid by the passenger per mile traveled has been made. The price it is remarkable, but it is expected to decrease considerably in the coming years, thanks to technological advances.

Continuous growth of air traffic generates that available resources during periods of high activity cannot meet the demand of air traffic, which generates a lot of congestion. This not only affects the reduction of operational efficiency, but also increases the workload of air traffic controllers, consequently, the risk of runway incursion or collision on the taxiway increases. For this reason, it is essential to have a good method of detecting and resolving possible conflicts between vehicles. The aim of this project is to understand all aspects that affect the generation of possible conflicts between vehicles in the airport taxi zone. To achieve this goal, a study has been carried out of the main characteristics of the airport¿s taxi zone: velocities, priorities, signage, among others. On the other hand, various studied and/or implemented methods of conflict detection and resolution have been analysed in order to be able to delve more deeply into the field. In the second part of this project, a simplification of conflict detection and resolution has been created by using Python. The main objective is to be able to put in action all studied aspects of the airport in the most realistic way possible. Once done, the different trajectories and the possible conflicts generated can be visualized. Overall, the project provides some guidelines on issues of conflict detection and resolution that are considered relevant for future research in this area. In addition, the necessary elements for implementation at the airport are mentioned.