Flight Path Planning for Minimization of Total Noise Exposure in Urban Air Mobility Operations

Noise generated by rotorcraft is a major barrier to the acceptance and integration of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations in populated areas. Annoyance due to rotorcraft noise increases with the noise level as well as the total duration and frequency of exposure. As such, noise annoyance serves as an important metric for the impact of Urban Air Mobility operations. This paper presents a method for the mitigation of noise for distributed grounded observers through path planning, using sound exposure as a proxy metric for annoyance. In the method presented herein, optimal vehicle flight paths are obtained individually using the A* grid-based optimal pathfinding method, with a cost function based on existing local area sound exposure and local area background noise levels. Optimal grid-based path generation and simulation of vehicle flight trajectories with persistent noise between flights enables global minimization of total and peak sound exposure for multiple aircraft. The proposed method serves as a simulation framework for future works with alternative models of annoyance, ambient soundscape, cost weighting, and vehicle dynamics and acoustics.