Ulsan City Takes a Big Step Toward Becoming a Leading Urban Air Mobility City

Two Projects Selected for 'Korean Urban Air Mobility Core Technology Development Competition'

Ulsan City announced that two final projects were selected among the seven research and development projects for the "Korean Urban Air Mobility (K-UAM) Safety Operation System Core Technology Development" led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

This research and development project, with a total budget of 100.7 billion KRW, is one of the government's top 10 national strategic technology projects. It passed the rapid preliminary feasibility study in August last year, and the first phase of development will be completed by 2026.

The city, in cooperation with local innovation institutions such as the Ulsan Information Industry Promotion Agency (UIPA) and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), formed a consortium in March with leading domestic research institutes, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) companies, and universities, and applied for three projects.

As a result of the competition, two research projects were finally selected: the corridor design automation technology development project led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and the meteorological observation technology development project led by the Korea Meteorological Administration. These projects will receive a total of 23.8 billion KRW in funding.

To efficiently promote the selected research projects, the city pledged an additional 3.8 billion KRW in local funding over three years, showing strong commitment to participating in both the first phase of UAM technology development and the preparation for the second phase demonstration research project (until 2028).

A city official stated, "With this selection, we expect to achieve research and development outcomes applicable to the Ulsan-style Urban Air Mobility (UAM), such as corridor design based on collision and noise prediction, digital twin and meteorological visualization through weather observation and forecasting, which are essential for developing commercial UAM routes in Ulsan."

The official added, "Based on Ulsan's automobile industry infrastructure, we will make every effort to secure new growth engines and global competitiveness by leading the future innovative transportation system, Urban Air Mobility (UAM)."

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is currently supplementing the second phase of the project to verify the reliability of the research outcomes from the "Korean Urban Air Mobility (K-UAM) Safety Operation System Core Technology Development" project. If the second phase (from 2027) is confirmed, integrated research and development demonstrations will be conducted in the Ulsan demonstration area.

Ulsan City also participated in the "Korean Urban Air Mobility (K-UAM) Research and Development Integrated Demonstration Site Competition" hosted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport in June 2022, and was selected as the optimal site for UAM demonstration research in semi-urban and urban environments. The city will accelerate the establishment of an integrated demonstration performance testbed in connection with the research and development projects selected in this competition.

Ulsan City Hall

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.