As part of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure’s call for ideas and funding for drones and air taxis, the City of Ingolstadt, together with the EDMS Institute, Lilium, Fraunhofer IBP and Digithinx, submitted a project proposal on the “Planning of AI-based vertiports and vertistops, taking into account the requirements for urban take-off and landing sites” and was awarded the contract.
The project “INCity-TakeOff”, funded until the end of 2022, focused on the infrastructure—take-off and landing sites—for air taxis in urban areas. The aim is to examine the requirements for the use and integration of so-called vertiports through a practical planning approach at the new main railway station in Ingolstadt.
The overall concept was intended to serve as a basis for the development of automated flight, air traffic infrastructure and regulations, and to be usable as a blueprint for other cities. With the help of modern virtual technologies and artificial intelligence, the planning tasks for a “vertiport ecosystem” were to be examined and analysed holistically and from a systems engineering perspective from the city’s point of view. The requirements for airspace, aircraft, buildings, the urban environment and the use of artificial intelligence in planning were considered.
The perspectives of citizens and users were also gathered.
Project partners:
- City of Ingolstadt
- Lilium GmbH, Munich
- Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research e.V. – Institute for Building Physics IBP, Stuttgart and Holzkirchen
- Institute for the Digitalisation of Things DigiThinx GmbH, Taufkirchen
