Aviation Twin Transition Cluster Event: Showcasing Digital Leadership Panel

Below you will find the abstracts and full videos of the presentations made during "Showcasing Digital Leadership Panel" at the Aviation Twin Transition Cluster Event held in Athens on July 29-30. To see all of the different panels held, click here.

RefMap Platform Demonstration

Speakers: Sotiris Xydis, Konstantinos Iliakis (ICCS - NTUA, RefMap project)

Abstract

This presentation introduces RefMap Multi-scale Analytic Platform a unified and cloud-enabled platform for large scale and small scale sustainable aviation planning analytics.

The discussion will be focused on the main features and analytic tools supported by the platform at its current state, its technology stack and its its scalable and portable architecture and design principles tailored for future air mobility needs.

---

Aircraft Trajectory Planning for Climate Impact Mitigation Considering Air Traffic Complexity

Speaker: Fateme Baneshi (Carlos III University of Madrid, RefMap project)

Abstract

Aviation contributes to human-induced climate change through the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other non-CO2 forcing agents. The latter, responsible for roughly two-thirds of aviation’s climate effects, is highly sensitive to the time and location of emissions. Consequently, climate-aware flight planning emerges as a potential measure to mitigate its associated climate impacts.

However, optimizing individual flight trajectories to reroute regions with high climate impact leads to traffic redistribution; sectors associated with warming effects tend to experience reduced traffic flow, while adjacent areas often face increased traffic density. This redistribution can introduce challenges to the manageability of the traffic, potentially raising concerns about the feasibility of such routing strategies.

This work presents a fast‑time, scalable framework built on constrained multi‑agent reinforcement learning to plan operationally feasible climate-friendly routes from the perspective of the air traffic management system. To mitigate climate impact, we identify specific airspace regions where aircraft emissions have significant warming effects, referred to as climate hotspot areas, and incorporate them as constraints that aircraft should avoid. To ensure operational feasibility of trajectories, traffic complexity is considered as the objective function to be minimized.

Starting from business-as-usual trajectories, each aircraft adjusts its flight path to avoid climate hotspot areas while minimizing the overall air traffic complexity. The proposed method employs the multi-agent proximal policy optimization algorithm and adapts it to handle constraints related to climate hotspot avoidance using the Lagrangian technique. To ensure scalability, parameter sharing is employed, allowing the algorithm to deal with varying numbers of concurrently operating aircraft in different scenarios.

The effectiveness of the proposed framework is validated through an experiment using real traffic data within European airspace on December 20, 2018, encompassing all the flights operating between 12:00 UTC and 16:00 UTC. The results demonstrated that the proposed approach balances environmental objectives with air traffic manageability, achieving a 9.14% reduction in net climate effect and a 5.27% decrease in traffic complexity, with a 0.64% increase in operational cost compared to business-as-usual trajectories.

---

Modelling and simulation of drone traffic public acceptance criteria

Speaker: Milan Rollo (AgentFly Technologies, ImAFUSA)

Abstract

Drone traffic brings novel challenges to urban planning and environmental impact assessment. Manned traffic has developed for over 100 years, and its impact on the public is well-studied. On the other hand, drones represent a new paradigm, and their range of operation will exceed that of manned aviation, including last-mile delivery.

Currently, we lack tools that allow us to study the impact of drone traffic on the public on a large scale. In this talk, we will demonstrate the use of fast-time, large-scale simulations to evaluate the public acceptance of drone traffic in terms of noise annoyance, visual pollution, and safety perception.

Scenarios for selected real-world areas will be presented, comparing various air traffic densities and organizations and evaluating its impact.

---

COLOSSUS Project Results

Speaker: Prajwal Prakasha (German Aerospace Center, COLOSSUS project)

Abstract

COLOSSUS is a Collaborative System of Systems Exploration project to design Aviation Products considering Business Models . The project developed a system-of-systems design methodology which will enable the combined optimization of aircraft, operations and business models.

Resulting specific solutions for intermodal transport and wildfire-fighting as well as developed methods and tools will be openly published in order to foster exploitation for research and industry.

To develop Seaplanes and E-VTOLs, this holistic 4-level approach spans the Business Models, System of Systems, Constituent Systems and Subsystems while capturing the complex interactions and interdependencies between the levels to extend the usual design and product development processes.

---

ImAFUSA is a founding member of the Aviation Twin Transition (ATT) Cluster alongside the Refmap Project. The ATT Cluster Event took place on 29 and 30 July, 2025, in Athens, Greece bringing together experts, industry leaders, researchers, and policymakers to discuss challenges and opportunities in the green and digital transitions in aviation and urban air mobility.

To see all the panels held during the event click here.

For more about the Aviation Twin Transition Cluster, click here.