U-AGREE Evaluation Activities

Antonietta Perfetto is a project engineer at ENGAGE SRL, where she joined the Research & Development department in 2024. ENGAGE is a technology-driven SME specialising in the design and development of cloud-native UTM solutions that enable safe, compliant, and scalable operations in unmanned and mixed airspace. With strong expertise in ATM/UTM software engineering, mission-critical systems, and highly regulated environments, ENGAGE supports operators, authorities, and ecosystem partners in shaping the next generation of intelligent and sustainable air mobility. As part of our R&D activities, we actively participate in both European and national funded research projects.  

In U-AGREE, ENGAGE leads the concept evaluation work package (WP5), focusing on the implementation of the developed risk models and the assessment of U-space services as mitigation barriers.

Within Task 5.3 “Execution of Evaluation Activities”, U-AGREE is entering a crucial phase: putting theory into practice. This task focuses on executing the evaluation activities defined in the Exploratory Research Plan, simulating selected UAS scenarios to assess U-AGREE risk models and the effectiveness of mitigation barriers. After a series of bi-weekly online meetings to align on the simulation approach, the project partners Engage, Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), Cranfield University and Collins Aerospace had the opportunity to meet in person on April 15 in Naples for an intensive workshop dedicated to WP5.

What preliminary work led to the organisation of this workshop?

The workshop was the outcome of several months of close collaboration among the WP5 partners: ENGAGE, Cranfield University, Universitat Politècnica de València, Collins, DLR, and Ineco. During this period, we held regular technical meetings to align our simulation frameworks, agree on common definitions, and exchange intermediate results. As the simulations became more complex, involving multiple U-space services, diverse airspace scenarios, and both drone and manned traffic, it became clear that a face-to-face session was necessary. The workshop allowed us to address open technical issues more efficiently and ensure that the outputs of the three simulators would be fully comparable. 

What is ENGAGE’s role within this work package?

As WP5 leader, ENGAGE is responsible for coordinating all concept evaluation activities. On the technical side, we design and run one of the three fast-time simulators used in the project. In our simulator, U-space services (such as flight authorisation, conformance monitoring, traffic information and tactical conflict prediction and resolution services) are applied to the scenarios chosen for the project. The objective is to quantify their impact on key safety and capacity indicators. In parallel, we ensure alignment across all partners, promoting consistency in assumptions, methodologies, and performance metrics so that results can be meaningfully compared. 

What were the main insights or outcomes from the workshop?

The workshop was very productive. The three simulator holding partners (ENGAGE, Cranfield University, and UPV) with support from Collins, strengthened alignment on key technical aspects. This helped consolidate a shared understanding of how the simulations should be configured and executed. We also made significant progress on the second, more complex exercise, which is characterized by the use of advanced U-space services. Importantly, we defined clear next steps, meetings, and deadlines to keep the work progressing efficiently.

What are the next steps following this workshop?

The next phase focuses on completing the simulations for both exercises and sharing the results across partners. One of the key strengths of U-AGREE is the use of three independent simulators: this allows us to cross-validate findings and identify results that are consistent across different implementations. Upcoming milestones include consolidation meetings where we will analyse and compare the results, with the goal of extracting robust conclusions on the effectiveness of risk models and impact of U-space services.