<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="https://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <channel>
    <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
    <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    <atom:link href="https://rip.trb.org/Record/RSS?s=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" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
    <description></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <copyright>Copyright © 2026. National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.</copyright>
    <docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs>
    <managingEditor>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</managingEditor>
    <webMaster>tris-trb@nas.edu (Bill McLeod)</webMaster>
    <image>
      <title>Research in Progress (RIP)</title>
      <url>https://rip.trb.org/Images/PageHeader-wTitle-RIP.jpg</url>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/</link>
    </image>
    <item>
      <title>Synthesis of Information Related to Airport Practices. Topic S03-20. Integrating Advanced Air Mobility into Aviation System Planning</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/2413901</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The rapid advancement of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technologies has the potential to revolutionize air transportation. These technologies promise to reduce travel time, enhance connectivity, and contribute to sustainability goals by offering cleaner, more efficient modes of transportation. Current aviation methods of safety assurance and risk management do not fully account for the operational, safety, and community impact considerations unique to AAM, such as low-altitude operations in densely populated areas, the establishment and management of vertiports, and the integration with existing ground infrastructure and transportation systems. Some cities and regions have begun to explore the possibilities of AAM and developed planning frameworks that both address these challenges and incorporate non-traditional aviation stakeholders as part of these systems.

The objective of this synthesis is to document the state planning efforts that have been developed to support the integration of AAM into existing state aviation system planning. For this project, AAM should focus on “larger, initially piloted aircraft designed to carry passengers, or similar sized aircraft designed to carry cargo” (ACRP Synthesis 130, pg. 2). The audience for this synthesis is state aviation agencies, practitioners that complete airport/system planning work products, OEMs/AAM operators, and airport operators.  ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 05 Aug 2024 19:41:15 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/2413901</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Occupant Protection for Legacy Rotorcraft</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1951977</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Rotorcraft aviation has a high injury and fatality rate from what should be survivable crashes. Only 10% of the U.S. fleet are compliant with the latest regulations with respect to the Emergency Landing Dynamic Condition Rule (14 CFR 27/29.562). Regulators are looking to reduce the risk of blunt force trauma in crashes of rotorcraft that do not meet the latest safety certification level. Dynamic research tests are needed to fill the knowledge gap in order to advance the crash safety for the existing rotorcraft fleet. This data can assist rotorcraft and seat manufacturers in the design of retrofit seats and structures and help industry groups in developing a set of guidelines to reduce the risk of injury to occupants.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will be conducting a series of dynamic tests at the Civil Aviation Medical Institute’s (CAMI) accelerator impact sled.  The seat used in this test series will be the Reusable Energy Absorbing Lab Seat (REAL) developed by the Department of the Navy. The seat will be pitched back 30 degrees from vertical with zero degrees of roll and yaw. The REAL seat will evaluated at five seat stroke distances: 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 inches. Three sled input pulses will be evaluated: 21, 25 and 30 feet per second. Each seat stroke and input pulse combination will be tested three times resulting in a total of 45 tests. Data will be collected by means of an instrumented 50th percentile FAA Hybrid III Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD). Acceleration measurements on the ATD will be collected at the head, spine and pelvis. Forces on the ATD will be collected at the upper neck and lumbar. Moments will be evaluated at the upper neck and lumbar. The REAL seat will be instrumented to measure seat pan acceleration and seat pan displacement. One channel on the accelerator sled will collect the acceleration results to verify the input pulse. ATD and seat motion during the dynamic test will be collected with two high speed cameras positioned perpendicular to X-Z and Y-Z planes of the sled coordinate systems. Outputs from this test series is anticipated to aid manufacturers of rotorcraft and seats to develop seats for the existing fleet to reduce in blunt force trauma during an accident. This dataset could benefit the general aviation aircraft and Electrical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) manufactures and designers. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2022 11:29:31 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1951977</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Development of A Simulation Tool for Planning On-Demand Urban Air Mobility</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1868773</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Urban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging concept proposed in recent years that uses electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) for passenger and cargo transport in low-altitude airspace. UAM provides disruptive innovation not only to aviation but also to mobility systems and urban planning. Although there are still technical challenges and implementation constraints towards large scale applications of UAM, it is undoubtedly anticipated to have significant impact to current multimodal transportation systems. However, given UAM is an emerging transportation mode with unknowns, it is challenging to include it into existing transportation planning and policy making processes.  
 
In our previous research, the network design of UAM on-demand service is examined, with a particular focus on the use of integer programming and a solution algorithm to determine the optimal locations of vertiports, user allocation to vertiports, and vertiport access- and egress-mode choices while considering the interactions between vertiport locations and potential UAM travel demand. A case study based on simulated disaggregate travel demand data of the Tampa Bay area in Florida, USA was conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model.
The objective of this proposed research is, based on the outcomes of the previous research, to develop a simulation tool of on-demand UAM. The simulation tool will be composed of different modules for generating passengers and trips, tracking and updating the states of different functional spaces of vertiports (including take-off-and-landing pads and charging stations) and eVTOLs, implementing operational management strategies, and calculating system performance metrics. 
The tool will be used for performing some what-if scenario analyses, e.g., with different number and locations of vertiports, with different design of vertiport functional space, with different operational management strategies. System performance metrics of on-demand UAM will be obtained for the what-if scenario comparison. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2021 10:06:13 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1868773</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Modeling the Environmental Impact of Urban Air Mobility: Case Study of Tampa Bay Region</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1763976</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging concept proposed in recent years that uses electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), which is expected to offer an alternative way of transporting passengers and goods in urban areas with significantly improved mobility by making use of low-altitude airspace. Our previous study answered planning questions in terms of optimal vertiport locations and estimation of diverted demand from ground transportation by combining network design and travel mode choice models. Although eVTOLs generate zero air pollutant emissions during operations, the impact to the region will be dependent on the energy resources of local power companies while generating the electricity and if eVTOLs are operated efficiently to serve passengers. 
Thus, in this study, the research team will take Tampa Bay Region as theiir study case and model the environmental impact of UAM implementation. 
First, they will extend their previous study to identify optimal vetiport locations and estimate UAM demand for Tampa Bay Region, which include 4 counties in FDOT District 7 and 2 counties in District 1, by using state-wide census tract level travel demand data.  
The research team will then estimate the total operations of eVTOLs to serve the region. 
Third, the team will work with local power companies to understand their sources of electricity generation and calculate the greenhouse gas emissions for supporting the operation of eVTOLs. 
Fourth, the research team will use EPA MOVEs model to obtain the emission rates of CO₂, NOx, and VOC emission rates in the 6 counties and calculate the air pollutant emission changes caused by UAM. 
Lastly, the research team will apply scenario analysis to model the environmental impacts of UAM in Tampa Bay Region under different scenarios and apply sensitivity analysis to test how the parameters in the modeling will affect the research outcomes.  
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Jan 2021 15:04:54 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1763976</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Understand the Diverted and Induced Demand of UAM</title>
      <link>https://rip.trb.org/View/1763977</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Traffic congestion and consequent excessive air pollutant emissions are leading sustainability issue in the United States. Urban Air Mobility (UAM) is an emerging concept proposed in recent years that uses electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), which is expected to offer an alternative way of transporting passengers and goods in urban areas with significantly improved mobility by making use of low-altitude airspace. Also, eVTOLs generate zero air pollutant emissions during operations. If the electricity (or partial of the electricity) comes from clean and renewable resources and eVTOLs are used efficiently, then UAM is also expected to be an environmentally friendly transportation mode. 
In current limited references, authors assumed simplified mode choice decisions for estimating diverted demand from existing ground transportation modes, and also did not estimate induced demand that could be caused by the system performance improvement due to the introduction of UAM. Such induced demand includes induced ground traffic demand due to mitigated traffic congestion and induced demand of UAM service due to improved mobility. 
In this study, the research team will design a stated preference survey questionnaire to investigate the potential of UAM in context of relieving ground congestion, willingness to pay, and mode shift. First, the current research aims to design an exploratory framework that will contribute to understanding how to approach the analysis of diverted and induced demand in case of UAM. Second, it will provide more insights on the factors (both psychological attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics) that will play a role in the adoption of UAM. Third, the study will explore how daily commute times and congestion status in respondents’ current locations relate to the willingness to pay for UAM and willingness to use UAM.
To answer the abovementioned research questions, both qualitative and quantitate analysis will be performed. The qualitative approach will allow to capture, analyze, and explain the behavioral component of study while the quantitative methods such as advanced statistical and econometric models will provide additional insights into the relationship between dependent variable of interest and independent variables.
Lastly, utility functions with expanded transportation mode choices will be explored to estimate diverted demand and induced demand. 
]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Jan 2021 14:48:34 GMT</pubDate>
      <guid>https://rip.trb.org/View/1763977</guid>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>