ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA >
A scheme for unmanned aerial system traffic management in low-altitude airspace
Received date: 2024-10-13
Revised date: 2024-12-12
Accepted date: 2025-04-07
Online published: 2025-04-25
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.
Yongnan JIA . A scheme for unmanned aerial system traffic management in low-altitude airspace[J]. ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA, 2025 , 46(11) : 531399 -531399 . DOI: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2025.31399
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