USim Airspace Digital Twin

Antony Evans, Airbus UTM ABSTRACT: Digital Twin technology is becoming increasingly important in the development of new technologies, because it allows for validation and verification using simulation at stages of development when there is little real-world data available. One example of where such technology is proving valuable is in Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM). Airbus has developed USim, a digital twin of the UTM ecosystem including simulated vehicles and a reference implementation of UTM services to support the safe and efficient operation of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicles in an airspace shared by many operators, with varying use cases. USim has been used with both Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and EUROCONTROL to explore the safety and efficiency implications of UAS operations, and the benefits provided by UTM services such as strategic deconfliction. This presentation will describe the capabilities of USim, and how it is being used to support the validation of UTM concepts of operation, airspace assessment for UTM, and interoperability requirements of UTM using both fast-time and real-time simulation.