On Wednesday 9 July, the Intermediate Technical Review Meeting of the SCIAME – Smart City Integrated Air Mobility Evolution project was held, a fundamental opportunity to take stock of the progress of activities and consolidate the strategic vision shared by the partners involved in the presence of the Technical Scientific Expert delegated by MIMIT.

The SCIAME project, financed by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, sees the DTA – Distretto Tecnologico Aerospazialein the role of coordinator, with the objective of enabling a new generation of Innovative Aerial Services in the urban environment, integrated with the digital (Urban Digital Twin) and physical infrastructures of smart cities.

An agenda full of content and perspectives

The meeting opened with an introductory overview of the project, contextualising its aims in the field of advanced urban mobility and emergencies, with a focus onexperimentation in the metropolitan area and the transversality of the sectors involved.

Among the main topics addressed:

• Innovative aerial services for Smart Cities: The main services being developed and tested were presented: last-mile delivery, health transport, infrastructure monitoring, environmental surveillance, and urban security support. These services represent the heart of SCIAME’s multi-use, multi-stakeholder transformation.

• Urban Air Mobility Models and Impacts Operational models for air mobility were discussed, with a focus on:

• Last-mile delivery, with analysis of optimal trajectories in the urban environment

• Life-cycle impacts of air services, from a sustainable perspective

• Acoustic, environmental and social impacts, including through field survey activities and simulations

• Urban infrastructure and U-space: Technological and regulatory elements related to vertiports, docking stations, the Drone Operation Centre and the integration of services in urban airspace (U-space) were discussed in depth, in collaboration with Techno Sky and D-Flight.

• Data Space and Digital Twin: The project is developing an information ecosystem integrating real and simulated data through an Urban Digital Twin, a key tool for decision support, urban planning and interoperability of services. A first demonstration prototype based on real scenarios of the Metropolitan City of Bari was presented.

• Artificial Intelligence and Flight Autonomy: Special attention was given to the use of AI algorithms for autonomous navigation, drone data processing and optimisation of aerial missions, in line with safety and reliability requirements.

A national ecosystem for urban sky innovation

SCIAME represents a national model for the development and testing of emerging technologies in the field of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) in Smart Cities. DTA, as lead partner, continues to promote a systemic and collaborative approach, integrating expertise in aerospace, ICT, mobility, sustainability and territorial governance.

To learn more about the SCIAME project and DTA’s activities in the field of aerospace and urban innovation, contact us or visit the project page.