Robust GNSS Navigation for Urban Air Traffic Management

This program develops robust GNSS navigation with multi-sensor fusion for low-altitude UAVs operating under Urban Air Traffic Management (UTM) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) frameworks. Drones operating below 300 m in dense cities face the same multipath and NLOS regime as ground vehicles, but with much tighter integrity requirements because UAV navigation failures are immediately safety-critical and visible to the airspace authority.

Why it matters. UTM/UAM is a 2026–2030 priority for both HK and Mainland aviation authorities. Reliable urban GNSS for drones is the missing piece between line-of-sight RC drones and scalable commercial low-altitude operations. The program extends IPNL’s urban-canyon expertise from ground vehicles to the low-altitude airspace.

Funding.

• RGC/NSFC Joint Research Scheme N_PolyU502/25 — HK$1.17M, PI, 01/2026–12/2029
• First RGC/NSFC JRS held as PI; bridges HK academic research with Mainland aviation-industry partners

Cross-references.

• Methodology builds on Multi-Agent Collaborative GNSS (the RGC RIF research line) and Environment-Aware GNSS for UAS and Autonomous Driving
• Related publication: Tightly Joined Positioning and Control Model for UAV based on FGO (Yang, Wen, Bai, Hsu, IEEE TVT 2025)