On the Assessment of Drone Noise for Sustainable Urban Air Mobility Operations

Drone noise-induced human annoyance is emerging as one of the main barriers of socially acceptable large-scale Urban Air Mobility (UAM) operations, which have the potential to revolutionize urban transportation systems in the next decades. This paper investigates the state-of-the-art technology on the assessment of drone noise and its impact on individuals, focusing on measurement and evaluation methodologies as well as subjective evaluations. Various acoustic metrics are reviewed to characterize drone noise, including sound pressure levels, spectral analysis, and psychoacoustic parameters such as loudness and annoyance. Preliminary experimental investigations to identify key frequencies and tonal components that significantly contribute to the drone noise-induced public annoyance are also discussed. Interdisciplinary approaches integrating pure technical acoustics, human perception, and subjectivity emerge as promising solutions for comprehensive understanding of drone noise effects. Finally, a comprehensive framework for drone noise assessment towards noise-aware UAM operations is proposed.