Automated Low Altitude Air Delivery

This paper provides an overview of a recent project of DLR that conceptually considers unmanned air cargo delivery. Flying at very low altitudes to avoid other air traffic and limiting the flight route to low risk areas shall enable a mitigation approach based on the specific operation risks. For this operation centric approach, many different aspects including aircraft design, flight guidance, on-board hard- and software design, and risk assessment are investigated for payloads in the range of one ton. The paper outlines the scheme of the project, expected outcomes and validation approach.