Introduction

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), also known as a unmanned aircraft system (UAS), remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator, or pilot (called a Combat Systems Officer on UCAVs) or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity.

Planes Structural Types

• Fixed Wings Plane

  (F-22 Raptor, Concorde)

• Single-Rotor Plane

  (Helicopter)

• Multi-Rotor Plane

  (Tri-Copter, Quad-Copter, Hexa-Copter, etc)

UAV Subsystems

• Auto-Pilot Subsystem

  • This Subsystem Concerned with Navigation, Controlling and Command Handling.

• Guidance and Navigation Subsystem

  • This Subsystem Concerned with Perceiving The Environment To Provide Data Help The Auto-Pilot or The Ground Station in Navigation and Controlling

• Communication and Telemetry Subsystem (Uplink Command, Downlink Telemetry)

  • This Subsystem Concerned with Providing Sustainable Communication Session Between The Ground Station and The UAV in The Air and Handle The Communication Protocol.

• Payload Subsystem

  • This Subsystem Concerned with The Application The UAV Designed For, And It Could Be Camera For Surveillance or Missile To Attack or Anything Else.

• Ground Station (GS) Subsystem

  • This Subsystem in The Ground and Concerned with Communicating With The UAV By Giving it Commands, Receive Telemetry and Sometime Guiding It In Navigation.

UAV Controling Types

• Radio Channel (RC) Remote Control

  • The UAV Controlled by Operator using 4-RC Remote

• Autonomous Control

  • The UAV Control Itself To Perform Certain Mission
    (The Question Here is How Much Autonomous ?).

Applications

• Military Applications

  • Recon (US Global Hawk)
  • Targeting and Strike (MQ-9 Reaper or US Predator)

• Civilian Applications

  • Land Management
  • Aerial Archeology
  • Infrastructure Inspections

Sample Video

This Article Presented By Member of AIExtreme Research Team