The Contract Will Create An Agility Prime Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Simulator

Avilution has been awarded a 6 month Air Force “Agility Prime” Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract for a joint research and development effort with Auburn University’s Vehicle Systems, Dynamics, and Design Lab (VSDDL).

The contract will create an Agility Prime Urban Air Mobility (UAM) simulator for use across the entire lifecycle of the Agility Prime Program: Design, Development, Testing, and Operations. This new and innovative capability is called the Agility Prime Engineering/eXperimental Simulator: (APEX).

This endeavor presents an opportunity to merge new but proven technologies to replace outdated paradigms in aerospace vehicle development and operations.The Avilution/Auburn team’s goal is to develop and demonstrate a common UAM pilot/operator station that gives in-vehicle pilots and ground station operators the same immediate familiarity and standardized interfaces taken for granted by operators of other transportation vehicles (automobiles, boats, etc) for many decades.

Featuring XFS’s modularity and reconfigurability, the APEX simulator will also evaluate UAM human-machine interfaces, test vendor components and subsystems, assess vehicle performance and flying qualities, provide pilot/operator training, and assess UAM operational concepts and support services such as air traffic management in dense environments. And, because Avilution markets its XFS source code to all customers and end users and because the Auburn VSDDL simulator is funded by NASA, Agility Prime managers can broadly distribute APEX solutions across the entire UAM ecosystem via Avilution use licenses without intellectual property barriers.

In Phase I, the Avilution/Auburn University team will validate the concept and the design of a multi-use, flexible APEX simulator/testbed and will conduct Phase I risk reduction tasks to demonstrate the compatibility of XFS software with the VSDDL simulator. The Avilution/Auburn team will work closely with the civilian UAM industry, the Air Force Research Laboratories, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and Air Force major combatant commands to ensure the APEX simulator concept includes the attributes and capabilities needed to be a useful tool in UAM development for both commercial and military missions.

If selected for Phase II, the Avilution and Auburn team will design and develop a prototype UAM Common Operator Station and install it in the VSDDL simulator to develop and evaluate multiple UAM configurations, systems, and operator interfaces. During a follow-on Phase III, this UAM-centric simulator and support engineering team will be available for Air Force and industry UAM investigations and development.

FMI: www.avilution.com