Flight Trajectory Protection for an Urban Air Mobility Vehicle Under Reduced Pitch Maneuverability

Urban Air Mobility offers a transformative approach to intra-city transportation using vertical take-off and landing vehicles; however, the safety of these systems remains a critical concern since these vehicles are particularly vulnerable to mechanical, electrical, or software failures. This paper presents an architecture to enhance the autonomous capabilities of a Lift+Cruise Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicle by integrating real-time failure-responsive algorithms with Fast Marching Tree trajectory generation, enabling dynamic re-planning and continued safe operation under fault conditions. A simulation environment, including a dynamic vehicle model, sensor and actuator models, a Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion controller, and 3D urban occupancy maps, is used to evaluate the approach across multiple realistic failure scenarios, demonstrating its effectiveness in ensuring safe and feasible navigation despite onboard anomalies.