Extended Reality Technologies for enhanced Public Acceptance of Urban Air Mobility: insights on the State of the Art
Millene GOMES ARAUJO, Francesca DE CRESCENZIO, Francesca STARITA, Giuseppe DI PELLEGRINO
Abstract. The aviation sector is currently moving towards the integration of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), a new, safer and more sustainable aerial domain. UAM uses electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) to transport goods and people at very low altitudes. However, technological and social sustainability challenges still need to be addressed before it can be fully developed. One of the main challenges is public acceptance of UAM and how to assess levels of acceptance. Acceptance frameworks that have already been successfully exploited in the aviation field can be implemented in the UAM context to investigate such social acceptance of UAM services. Since these methodologies are largely based on subjective perceptions, Extended Reality (XR) technologies have the potential to increase public acceptance of UAM systems, as they offer an immersive visualization of the relevant aspects. In this context, this work presents insights from a literature review on the state of research into the application of XR technologies to public acceptance of UAM. Previous studies have identified future users of UAM as clients of services and infrastructures, air taxi passengers, and pedestrians. Some of the use cases conducted include the development of operational concepts and the design of vertiports and air taxi interiors, as well as visual and auditory perception. Understanding how different aspects of acceptance are addressed can help us to appreciate the potential of XR to enhance such applications.
Keywords
Public Acceptance, Extended Reality (XR), Urban Air Mobility (UAM), Human Factors (HF)
Published online 7/20/2026, 5 pages
Copyright © 2026 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Millene GOMES ARAUJO, Francesca DE CRESCENZIO, Francesca STARITA, Giuseppe DI PELLEGRINO, Extended Reality Technologies for enhanced Public Acceptance of Urban Air Mobility: insights on the State of the Art, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 69, pp 1549-1553, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644904251-271
The article was published as article 271 of the book CEAS – AIDAA Conference 2025
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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