Pilots

ImAFUSA Open Day in Athens

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On the 15th of May, the citizens of Athens, along with the organisations participating in the ImAFUSA project, will attend an Open Day event in Egaleo, Athens. 

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ImAFUSA is a project funded by SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking, that focuses on evaluating factors that influence citizens’ acceptance of Urban Air Mobility (UAM). The project goal is to deliver a framework that will help Local Authorities and other U-space stakeholders and users with the delivery of socially acceptable and beneficial UAM deployment in cities. 

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During this Open Day, participants, local citizens and local authorities employees will provide us with data on drone noise perceptions, visual pollution, and safety factors during real drone flights in Athens. This will be done via several “sound walks’’ organised by ImAFUSA’s partner, the University of Salford, and supported by the Technical University of Delft (TU Delft). The participants, split into different teams, will stop in various locations inside the park and answer a survey prepared by the Business Research Unit of the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE) and supported by Future Needs, related to their perception of the above factors. The collection of these data will allow the designation of new UAM impact indicators by the partnership. Organising the event locally has been undertaken by the project partner, municipality of Egaleo. 

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The event and the flight demonstrations intend to help towards the creation of the ImAFUSA framework of social acceptance. Experts will test and collect data regarding environment, safety and social acceptance. The discussions with industry and policy experts will examine in detail areas such as innovative air mobility and aerial services, as well as the progress towards making U-space a reality, and explore the results of the SESAR programme of U-space research and demonstration projects. 

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This Open Day event is organised under the scope of the European Commission's Drone Strategy 2.0, an initiative, which aims to foster the development of new sustainable drone services and transport solutions.