System of and method for automated flight planning for urban air mobility

A method of automatically generating an optimized flight path of an aerial vehicle within an urban air environment, the method comprising the steps of:

• loading, into a memory of the computing device, at least one imaging database comprising a plurality of building feature points, at least one flight operation request, or both, wherein the at least one flight operation request comprises at least one vertiport, a flight path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle, or both, whereby the plurality of building feature points are configured to be clustered based on at least one dimension of at least one preidentified building;
• producing, via at least one processor, at least one three-dimensional map based on the at least one imaging database by:
• identifying, via the processor, a building footprint based on at least one cluster of the plurality of building feature points;
• and
• generating, via the processor, at least one two-dimensional bounding box surrounding a perimeter of the building footprint;
• calculating, via the at least one processor, a shortest flight path between at least two of the plurality of vertiports based on the at least two vertiports, the flight operation request, or both;
• calculating, via the at least one processor, at least one alternative flight path between at least two of the plurality of vertiports based on the at least two vertiports, flight operation request, or both;
• storing, into a memory of the computing device, the shortest flight path, the at least one alternative valid flight path, or both;
• detecting, via the at least one processor, one or more temporal conflicts between the shortest flight path, at least one alternative flight path, or both and at least one alternative aerial vehicle;
• classifying, via the at least one processor, the one or more temporal conflicts as a first type conflict, second type conflict, or both;
• resolving, via the at least one processor, the one or more temporal conflicts by enforcing a predetermined minimum temporal separation to generate a conflict-free shortest flight path;
• comparing, via the at least one processor, the calculated shortest flight path and a flight path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle;
• and
• automatically displaying the conflict free flight path within the at least one three-dimensional map on a display device associated with the computing device by:
• responsive to the determination that the conflict free flight path does not include any portion of the at least one bounding box between the at least two vertiports, does not intersect with the shortest path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle, or both, highlighting the shortest path in a high contrast color on a display device associated with the computing device;
• and
• responsive to the determination that the conflict free flight path includes any portion of the at least one bounding box between the at least two vertiports, does not intersect with the shortest path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle, or both, removing the calculated at least one shortest path from the at least one three-dimensional map-;
• and
• automatically displaying, via the at least one processor, the at least one alternative flight path on the display device with a visual differentiation relative to the calculated shortest flight path.

A flight planning optimization system for automatically optimizing a flight plan for an aerial vehicle within an urban air environment, the flight planning optimization system comprising:

• a computing device having at least one processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium operably coupled to the at least one processor, the computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the flight planning optimization system to automatically optimize the flight plan of the aerial vehicle within the urban air environment by executing instructions comprising:
• loading, into a memory of the computing device, at least one imaging database comprising a plurality of building feature points, at least one flight operation request, or both, wherein the at least one flight operation request comprises at least one vertiport, a flight path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle, or both, whereby the plurality of building feature points are configured to be clustered based on at least one dimension of at least one preidentified building;
• producing, via at least one processor, at least one three-dimensional map based on the at least one imaging database by:
• identifying, via the processor, a building footprint based on at least one cluster of the plurality of building feature points;
• and
• generating, via the processor, at least one two-dimensional bounding box surrounding a perimeter of the building footprint;
• calculating, via the at least one processor, a shortest flight path between at least two of the plurality of vertiports based on the at least two vertiports, the flight operation request, or both;
• calculating, via the at least one processor, at least one alternative flight path between at least two of the plurality of vertiports based on the at least two vertiports, the flight operation request, or both;
• storing, into a memory of the computing device, the shortest flight path, the at least one alternative flight path, or both;
• comparing, via the at least one processor, the calculated shortest flight path and a flight path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle;
• detecting one or more temporal conflicts between the shortest flight path, at least one alternative flight path, or both and the flight path of the at least one alternative aerial vehicle;
• classifying the one or more temporal conflicts as a first type temporal conflict corresponding to interesting flight path, a second type temporal conflict corresponding to co-linear paths, or both;
• resolving, via the at least one processor, the one or more temporal conflicts by enforcing a predetermined minimum temporal separation to generate a conflict-free shortest flight path;
• automatically displaying the conflict free flight path within the at least one three-dimensional map on a display device associated with the computing device by:
• responsive to the determination that the conflict free flight path does not include any portion of the at least one bounding box between the at least two vertiports, does not intersect with the shortest path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle, or both, highlighting the shortest path in a high contrast color on a display device associated with the computing device;
• and
• responsive to the determination that the conflict free flight path includes any portion of the at least one bounding box between the at least two vertiports, does not intersect with the shortest path of at least one alternative aerial vehicle, or both, removing the calculated at least one shortest path from the at least one three-dimensional map;
• and
• automatically displaying, via the at least one processor, the at least one alternative flight path on the display device with a visual differentiation relative to the calculated shortest flight path.