More Datasets

Dataset-29: Air Corridors Emulation

2026
2023, Drone, Trajectory
Non-Canonical Experiments
Air Corridors, Air Traffic Management, ArduPilot, Autonomous Navigation, Multi-Agent Coordination, SITL, UAV

Lead Experimenter

John Kesler, North Carolina State University

Link to Dataset

  • Dataset Link:
    This dataset includes a Docker-based Software-In-The-Loop (SITL) emulation of a multi-UAV air corridor traffic management system. It models autonomous UAVs navigating structured 3D grid-based air corridors with enforced minimum separation constraints and dynamic corridor opening and closure controlled by a ground coordinator. The full source code, multi-container deployment setup, and visualization support are publicly available on [IEEE DataPort].
  • A demonstration video is available at: [YouTube].

Equipment and Software Used

ArduPilot Software-In-The-Loop (SITL), Docker and Docker Compose containerized deployment, Multiple UAV SITL instances, Ground coordination module, Real-time visualization via Google Earth

Description

This dataset provides an emulation framework for air corridor traffic management using UAVs. The system models a structured 3D airspace composed of discrete grid cells, where UAVs must coordinate to traverse narrow corridors safely.

Key system characteristics:
- The air corridor is modeled as a 3D grid.
- A UAV may move to any of the 26 adjacent grid locations, provided minimum separation constraints are satisfied.
- UAVs must maintain at least two grid units of separation from other UAVs.
- Only one UAV can safely pass through a narrow corridor at a time.
- Corridors can be dynamically opened or closed by a ground coordinator.
- UAVs autonomously re-route when corridor availability changes.

The emulation includes realistic timing and environmental parameters such as turbulence and asynchronous take-off commands. Because of this, repeated runs may produce slightly different trajectories and coordination outcomes.

The system architecture includes:
- A separate Docker container per UAV instance.
- One ground coordination container responsible for corridor state updates.
- Real-time 3D visualization of both UAV positions and corridor mesh.

This framework enables experimentation with decentralized coordination and adaptive re-routing under constrained airspace conditions.

Publications

    Representative Results

    Potential use cases for this dataset include:

    • Urban Air Mobility Research
    • Conflict Avoidance Algorithm Validation
    • Dynamic Route Replanning Studies