Energy Optimal Speed Profile for Arrival of Tandem Tilt-Wing eVTOL Aircraft with RTA Constraint

The electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft can alleviate transportation congestion on the ground by utilizing three-dimensional airspace efficiently. However, the endurance of Lithium-ion Polymer (Li-Po) batteries imposes severe constraints on the operational time span of an eVTOL on urban air mobility (UAM) passenger transportation mission. This research focuses on the formulation of a fixed final time multiphase optimal control problem with energy consumption as the performance index for a tandem tilt-wing eVTOL aircraft. The proposed multiphase optimal control problem formulation and the numerical solution enable the eVTOL aircraft to meet the given required time of arrival (RTA) with the optimal speed profile for the most energy efficient arrival. The problem formulation is validated in a UAM passenger transport use case with Airbus Vahana eVTOL aircraft, and the Uber Elevate proposed vertiport concept in numerical simulations.