Droning On or Tuning In? How ImAFUSA Helps Cities Make Sense of Urban Drone Noise

From Background Buzz to Policy Priority: Cities Are Tuning In to Drone Noise

As Urban Air Mobility (UAM) becomes more than just a futuristic concept, the ImAFUSA project is making sure we don’t overlook one key element: sound.

While most discussions around drones focus on engineering and airspace, a team of experts (Antonio, Marc, Amy and Mirjam) from the Univeristy of Salford and Delft University of Technology, are exploring how these flying devices sound and how those sounds make people feel.

Rather than fixate on decibels alone, ImAFUSA is combining acoustic modelling, immersive sound experiments, and emotional response research to help cities make sense of urban drone noise.

Sound Matters: From Noise Metrics to Human Perception

Antonio Torija Martinez, Associate Professor in Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford, is helping lead the project’s efforts to develop new tools that measure and predict noise impacts.

“My role in Imafusa is to develop modelling tools and new metrics to assess the noise impact of drones and eVTOLs,”

These tools are being designed not just for academic analysis but to support decision-makers, including public regulators and drone manufacturers.

“What we are trying to do in Imafusa is we are trying to develop the tools for regulators to understand, assess and mitigate any impacts that the operations of drones and eVTOLs might have on communities.”

Listening to the Whole Soundscape

To understand how drone noise interacts with its environment, ImAFUSA is also running Sound Walks—immersive experiments designed to explore the emotional and sensory impact of sound on people.

Marc Green (University of Salford) and Amy Morin (Delft University of Technology) explained the concept behind these experiments:

“The purpose of the experiment we're doing today—these are called Sound Walks—is to assess people's response to the soundscape holistically,” -Marc.

Unlike traditional noise studies that isolate decibel levels or annoyance ratings, Sound Walks ask participants to absorb their surroundings and consider how all the sounds, including drones, affect them emotionally.

“We're not necessarily asking people to concentrate just on the drone. We're asking people to listen to everything. And how does adding the drone over the top actually change the perception of the entire area?”

While Marc and the team focus on human perception, Amy’s work brings a technical layer to the picture.

“We're mostly focusing on the noise metrics itself... We have the array of 112 microphones and that's to capture... the actual noise forces on the drone and we can get a picture of what it actually looks like.”

By combining human and technical data, the team can correlate what people feel with what the drones actually produce.

“We can then after the fact, correlate between these two results... and whether or not we can actually identify which parts of those [sounds] are actually causing the most changes to people's emotional states.”

Why Cities Need to Act Now

For Mirjam Snellen, Professor at Delft University of Technology’s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, the urgency is clear.

“At the moment, of course, the use of drones is emerging more and more. And we are very afraid that if we do not have good insights into metrics that predict the annoyance for noise... people will experience really a burden from this introduction of the drones.”

Mirjam and her colleagues are working closely with the University of Salford to evaluate annoyance levels and other community impacts of drone noise.

“We want to be able to timely assess the effects that drone noise has on citizens.”

Her message to local governments is simple: get involved now.

“I know that there's many cities that are running into questions regarding the use of drones... The more people involved, the better it is.”

Building Tools for Tomorrow

Whether through data modelling, immersive soundscape analysis, or physical noise mapping, the ImAFUSA project is building a comprehensive toolkit to ensure drone operations are not only technically viable but socially acceptable.

“Within ImAFUSA, we have a strong team. There's many organisations involved that have important knowledge for carrying out this research successfully.”

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Connect with Antonio Torija Martinez, Marc Green, Amy Morin and Mirjam Snellen as well as the University of Salford and Delft University of Technology.