During the week of 10 June, the SESAR JU ENSURE validated a new service for the ATM-U-space interface: the emergency management and contingency plan. 

In recent years, new actors have appeared in the airspace, such as drones, which are being used for multiple applications, from agriculture, inspections or surveillance to future uses such as urban air mobility (UAM). With this great growth of airspace users, it is needed the coexistence and the information exchange between manned and unmanned aviation.

ENSURE Solution 1 is making ATM and U-space integration possible thanks to a common interface, a first validation of which was carried out led by Indra, coordinator of the project and the solution.

During this validation, the Indra team was able to exchange information between its ATM and U-space systems related with emergencies situations a drone can experience. This allows the controller to be alerted when a drone is under an emergency situation, indicating the corresponding alert and displaying the alternative flight plan that the drone is going to follow when this emergency occurs. The  controller is now aware all the time about this drone situation and the procedure the drone is going to follow, increasing the situational awareness and the level of safety.  The exchange will be further validated with other project partners at future sprints.

Do you want to know more about ENSURE validations? Stay tuned because this is just the beginning and you will have news about the first validations of Solution 2 very soon.

About ENSURE

Funded within the framework of Horizon Europe, the ENSURE fast track project aims to refine and complete the definition of a common interface and services for U-space and ATM. The project is developinga standardised data model, architecture and an operational methodology. It will also develop a dynamic airspace configuration service to help air traffic management stakeholders in charge of airspace reconfigurations to maintain traffic segregation and to avoid proximity between manned and unmanned aircraft within the designated U-space airspace.