RIS-Aided Trajectory Optimization in Layered Urban Air Mobility

Urban air mobility (UAM) relies on developing aerospace industries, where safe aviation and efficient communication are critical features of aircraft. However, it is challenging for aircraft to sustain efficient air-ground communication in urban circumstances. Without continuous air-ground communication, aircraft may experience course deviation and safety accidents. To address these problems, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-aided trajectory optimization scheme is proposed enabling efficient air-ground communication and safe aviation in UAM with a layered airspace structure. This article first devises a dual-plane RIS communication scheme for layered airspace. It fully engages the omnidirectional and directional signal attributes to reduce the transmission delay of the air-ground communication. Based on the dual-plane RIS configuration, we jointly develop the intra- and interlayer trajectory scheme to optimize communication and safe aviation. In the intralayer trajectory optimization, we propose a dual-time-scale flight scheme to improve communication capacity and horizontal flight safety. Meanwhile, we propose a safe layer-switching method to ensure collision avoidance during vertical flight in the interlayer trajectory optimization. The communication load of the proposed scheme can be improved 40% and the time of safe separation restoration can be lessened 66% compared with the benchmarks in the layered airspace.