Capacity Estimation for Low Altitude Airspace

This paper uses a threshold based mathematical definition to estimate capacity for future sUAS traffic in low altitude uncontrolled airspace based on safety and performance considerations. It is motivated by the need to assess the impact of large-scale close proximity unmanned aircraft operations on communities and existing manned airspace. We simulate unmanned traffic over urban areas and estimate metrics focused on safety and performance efficiency. The effect of increasing traffic density on the metrics shows that safety is potentially the most critical capacity determining factor of the two.