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Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (11): 531399.doi: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2025.31399

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A scheme for unmanned aerial system traffic management in low-altitude airspace

Yongnan JIA1,2()   

  1. 1.School of Automation and Electrical Engineering,University of Science and Technology Beijing,Beijing 100083,China
    2.Key Laboratory of Knowledge Automation for Industrial Processes of Ministry of Education,University of Science and Technology Beijing,Beijing 100083,China
  • Received:2024-10-13 Revised:2024-12-12 Accepted:2025-04-07 Online:2025-04-29 Published:2025-04-25
  • Contact: Yongnan JIA E-mail:ynjia@pku.edu.cn

Abstract:

In recent years, with the rapid development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology, countries around the world have actively begun to plan and develop low-altitude airspace management systems to ensure the sustainable growth of the low-altitude economy. Existing Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems are primarily designed for manned aircraft operating in medium and high-altitude airspace, making them inadequate for supporting large-scale UAV operations in low-altitude environments. Particularly in application scenarios such as logistics delivery, urban surveillance, and infrastructure inspection, the high-density deployment of UAVs poses new challenges to air traffic management. Consequently, the construction of an efficient, safe, and intelligent Unmanned Aerial System Traffic Management (UTM) framework has become a prominent topic of global research. This paper first reviews the current state of UTM system development both domestically and internationally, with a focus on analyzing similarities and differences among various countries in terms of airspace classification, UTM system architecture, and policy implementation. Then, this paper defines the structure of a typical UTM system and outlines its core technical components, including multi-UAV communication networks, cooperative control, capacity and flow management, conflict detection and resolution, and swarm-level autonomous traffic operations. The main technical challenges currently faced in UTM development are also analyzed in depth. Finally, based on the principles of distributed decision-making, real-time airspace negotiation, and resilient risk management, this study proposes a phased, step-by-step UTM solution tailored to China’‍s low-altitude airspace structure and leveraging the capabilities of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). The proposed system adopts a hierarchical, categorized, zoned, and grid-based management approach, and introduces an innovative “pipeline-style” three-dimensional route network design centered on the “bagua” diagram (a traditional Chinese octagonal structure), to optimize airspace allocation and support the future large-scale autonomous and cooperative operation of UAV.

Key words: low-altitude economy, Unmanned aerial system Traffic Management (UTM), air route network, coordination control of unmanned aerial vehicles, conflict detection and avoidance

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