Center for Vertical Mobility
Illustration Center for Vertical Mobility
Mobility is a key component that will have a lasting impact on and shape the future development of population and economic structures in rural areas. With a view to future applications, there is a particular focus on networked automation, which gives mobility more degrees of freedom and thus greater flexibility with regard to operational aspects, but also creates the framework conditions for realizing new or rethought forms of mobility in the first place. Against this background, vertical mobility plays a special role. Vertical take-off capable vehicles offer the potential to realize transport and traffic services at almost any location, with or without people on board, without the need for a special ground infrastructure. Taxiway infrastructures and the associated fixed approach and departure procedures are not required. This results in outstanding flexibility for use in point-to-point traffic.
The Center for Vertical Mobility CVM is intended to create a competence and test center for vertical mobility in the Rhenish mining area that is unique in Germany. Vertical mobility focuses on personnel-carrying and unmanned aerial vehicles, from medical drones to air cabs, which are capable of vertical takeoff and have a high degree of automation. Against this background, it is planned to locate the center in the immediate vicinity of the existing Aldenhoven Testing Center for Automotive Applications in order to jointly research "Networked Automated Mobility" across all modes of transport in the future and unite them in an exemplary holistic concept.
Automation technologies can be used to simplify the challenging complexity of controlling aircraft, in particular novel technology concepts of Urban Air Mobilty, to such an extent that the mobility services offered can be used safely and reliably. In addition to the aircraft concept including sensors, fundamental elements for fully automated operation are flight control and flight guidance as well as navigation and communication. System robustness and airspace integration also play an important role in operational safety. These central aspects are now all to be physically brought together in the Center for Vertical Mobility competence and test center. With a team of university institutes, SMEs and industry, the R&D topics of "Networked Automated Mobility" are addressed with the involvement of authorities and relevant organizations. The first concrete applications are technology implementations in real laboratories for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and the testing of airborne wind energy systems.