With the opening of the 2023 Drone Show Korea, Korea’s largest drone exhibition held at BEXCO in Busan, about two weeks away, you can get a glimpse of the vision and roadmap of domestic companies for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), a hot item in the mobility industry. It is expected that there will be.
UAM is an air transportation ecosystem that utilizes a 3D aerial transportation system within the city, and refers to a ‘future air taxi’ that maximizes travel efficiency in the city. This is a field that requires more advanced base technology than other leisure, industrial, and military drones that require relatively small dimensions, low loading capacity, and flight stability. It can be combined with a personal aircraft (PAV) capable of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) to transport passengers or cargo. Operated for transportation purposes.
The ultimate goal of UAM is to establish itself as a key mobility in future smart cities based on the characteristics of being safe, fast, and eco-friendly, with an air vehicle capable of autonomous driving and transportation of people and cargo. To this end, research and development and investment are being made by global companies, and in Korea, related companies have established a consortium under the leadership of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which released the ‘K-UAM Roadmap’ in 2020.
As part of this, five companies, Hyundai Motor Company, Incheon International Airport Corporation, KT, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, and Korean Air, are accelerating related projects by forming the K-UAM One Team Consortium. In particular, Korean Air, Korea’s largest airline participating in this Drone Show Korea, is participating as a joint research institute in the research and development of the UAM surveillance information acquisition system hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and is developing the operation control system and operator simulation system required for operators in the UAM environment.
The operation control system is a system used by operators for flight planning, flight monitoring, and schedule management, and also provides additional information for operations such as weather, airspace, communication, and vertiport. The operator simulation system is a system that simulates the entire process from flight preparation to flight completion and will provide the function to check whether UAM is operating safely.
In addition, Korean Air is also working to develop unmanned aircraft integrated control systems (UMS, UAS) and establish a foundation for safe operation. In addition, we are developing a traffic management system for traffic management operators that comprehensively manages traffic flow, including UAM flight plan approval, flight monitoring, and emergency response, and are also pursuing the establishment of a digital twin that virtually implements the entire UAM ecosystem. .
At the 2022 Drone Show Korea held last year, Korean Air also operated a ‘UAM Zone’ to introduce traffic management and flight control systems to create an operating environment and presented a simulation of the UAM control system that will be commercialized in the future, showing even more advanced technology at this exhibition. is expected to be released to the public.
The three mobile communication companies are also participating in the K-UAM project by forming their own consortia. For several years now, the company has been looking for new sources of business in non-telecommunication fields beyond the telecommunications field, which is its main field and traditional domestic industry, and plans to create new growth engines through this.
SK Telecom, which announced its participation in the Drone Show Korea 2023 again following last year, is famous for SKT CEO Yoo Young-sang personally leading the UAM business. SKT is currently forming a consortium with Korea Airports Corporation, Hanwha Systems, Korea Meteorological Industry Technology Institute, and Korea Land, Infrastructure and Transport Corporation to establish UAM-based technology and cooperation system and participate in the first phase of the ‘K-UAM Grand Challenge’ project.
In addition, SKT held a management meeting with Joby Aviation to accelerate the commercialization of K-UAM in the United States. Joby Aviation is a company that certifies the world’s most advanced UAM aircraft along with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). SKT provides aircraft supply and operation know-how based on Joby Aviation’s world-leading technology. It is expected to play a key role in domestic demonstration projects in charge of cooperation.
SKT also introduced the highly realistic K-UAM virtual experience program at CES 2023, the world’s largest tech expo held in Las Vegas, USA last month. At that time, SKT implemented a future city with an environmentally clean and safe UAM system in virtual space, and attracted attention with its proprietary technology leading the commercialization of K-UAM.
At the same time, SKT also proposed a plan to reduce greenhouse gases through eco-friendly technology that links AI semiconductor ‘Sapion’ with a new and renewable energy virtual power plant. By using Sapion semiconductors for UAM aircraft operations, operational efficiency can be improved, and the power demand of Vertiport, the take-off and landing site, can also be predicted with virtual power plant technology.
LG U+ formed a consortium with Kakao Mobility, GS Caltex, Jeju Air, Pablo Airlines, and Vertical Aerospace, participated in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s K-UAM GC demonstration project, and, like SKT, took on the role of building an airspace network.
In particular, we are jointly researching and developing a traffic management system in collaboration with Pablo Aviation, a company specializing in drone solutions and services. The traffic management system is a system that observes and controls all movements of UAM to prevent collisions between aircraft and obstacles. LG U+ is applying the UAM traffic management system to government demonstration projects and is also seeking ways to upgrade the system to accelerate the commercialization of UAM.
In addition, in July last year, a business agreement (MOU) was signed with Busan City to create a UAM ecosystem, securing a regional base. A total of 7 participating companies, including the two organizations, are conducting a demonstration project using the maritime infrastructure in the Busan region to early revitalize UAM, which is attracting attention as a future high value-added industry, and to dominate the market.
By sector, we are concentrating our capabilities on building a UAM ecosystem foundation, including technologies for commercializing UAM traffic management systems and communication infrastructure, location of mobile data-based vertiports, and passenger and logistics, and through this, we are developing preemptive strategies so that Busan can lead the UAM industry. Establish and promote.
Recently, an MOU was signed with the Seoul Transportation Corporation to create a UAM complex transfer center. The complex transfer center will be built around subway stations where transportation users such as subway, GTX, and buses are concentrated, such as Samsung Station, Suseo Station, and Guro Digital Complex. Seoul Transportation Corporation supports administrative matters such as systems for introducing a multimodal transfer center and Vertiport infrastructure, and LG U+ is conducting demonstrations of UAM-related communication technologies as a traffic management system for route operation.
In addition to related demonstrations, the two companies will also jointly pursue preliminary research on environmental factors such as the feasibility of UAM, technical stability, and acceptance by local residents, as well as environmental factors such as the flight environment, weather conditions along the flight path, and flight obstacles. As such, expectations are rising as to whether LG U+, which has been conducting research and development in the UAM field at various levels, will reveal its achievements and status at the Drone Show Korea 2023.
Meanwhile, through the K-UAM roadmap, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport predicts that the UAM global market size, worth $2023 billion in 61, will rapidly grow to $2025 billion in 109, the initial commercialization point, and $2030 billion in 615, reaching $2040 billion in 6,090. It was predicted that If limited to Korea, the UAM market size in 2040 is expected to reach 13 trillion won, production inducement effect 23 trillion won, added value to 11 trillion won, and 16 jobs will be created.
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