Unmanned aerial vehicle
[40][41][42] The Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo introduced a radio-based control-system called the Telekino[43] at the Paris Academy of Science in 1903, as a way of testing airships without risking human life.
[48] Following this successful demonstration in the spring of 1917 Low was transferred to develop aircraft controlled fast motor launches D.C.B.s with the Royal Navy in 1918 intended to attack shipping and port installations and he also assisted Wing Commander Brock in preparations for the Zeebrugge Raid.
Development continued during World War I, when the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company invented a pilotless aerial torpedo that would explode at a preset time.
[52] After World War II development continued in vehicles such as the American JB-4 (using television/radio-command guidance), the Australian GAF Jindivik and Teledyne Ryan Firebee I of 1951, while companies like Beechcraft offered their Model 1001 for the U.S. Navy in 1955.
During the War of Attrition (1967–1970) in the Middle East, Israeli intelligence tested the first tactical UAVs installed with reconnaissance cameras, which successfully returned photos from across the Suez Canal.
[64][65][66] The images and radar decoys provided by these UAVs helped Israel to completely neutralize the Syrian air defenses at the start of the 1982 Lebanon War, resulting in no pilots downed.
[67] In Israel in 1987, UAVs were first used as proof-of-concept of super-agility, post-stall controlled flight in combat-flight simulations that involved tailless, stealth-technology-based, three-dimensional thrust vectoring flight-control, and jet-steering.
Initial generations primarily involved surveillance aircraft, but some carried armaments, such as the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, that launched AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles.
[73][76] The development of smart technologies and improved electrical-power systems led to a parallel increase in the use of drones for consumer and general aviation activities.
As of 2021[update], quadcopter drones exemplify the widespread popularity of hobby radio-controlled aircraft and toys, but the use of UAVs in commercial and general aviation is limited by a lack of autonomy[clarification needed] and by new regulatory environments which require line-of-sight contact with the pilot.
[79] According to data from GlobalData, the global military uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) market, which forms a significant part of the UAV industry, is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% over the next decade.
Larger types which carry a variable payload are more likely to feature a distinct fuselage with a tail for stability, control and trim, although the wing configurations in use vary widely.
Common UAV-systems control hardware typically incorporate a primary microprocessor, a secondary or failsafe processor, and sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and barometers into a single module.
[92] In addition to the navigation sensors, the UAV (or UAS) can be also equipped with monitoring devices such as: RGB, multispectral, hyper-spectral cameras or LiDAR, which may allow providing specific measurements or observations.
Modern UAVs run a software stack that ranges from low-level firmware that directly controls actuators, to high level flight planning.
These bi-directional narrowband radio links carried command and control (C&C) and telemetry data about the status of aircraft systems to the remote operator.
Other functions available or under development include; collective flight, real-time collision avoidance, wall following, corridor centring, simultaneous localization and mapping and swarming,[104] cognitive radio, and machine learning.
[111][112] Micro air vehicles endurance is so far best achieved with flapping-wing UAVs, followed by planes and multirotors standing last, due to lower Reynolds number.
[124] Besides, dynamic assessment of flight envelope allows damage-resilient UAVs, using non-linear analysis with ad hoc designed loops or neural networks.
[127] In recent years, autonomous drones have begun to transform various application areas as they can fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)[128] while maximizing production, reducing costs and risks, ensuring site safety, security and regulatory compliance,[129] and protecting the human workforce in times of a pandemic.
[134][135][136][137] Top military UAV manufactures are including General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Baykar,[138][135] TAI, IAIO, CASC and CAIG.
[137][141] The shift accelerated in the 2020s due to China's advancement in drone technologies and manufacturing, compounded by market demand from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza conflict.
[142][143][144][145] For intelligence and reconnaissance missions, the inherent stealth of micro UAV flapping-wing ornithopters, imitating birds or insects, offers potential for covert surveillance and makes them difficult targets to bring down.
UAVs enable the capture of images of various landslide features, such as transverse, radial, and longitudinal cracks, ridges, scarps, and surfaces of rupture, even in inaccessible areas of the sliding mass.
By employing a suite of sensors (e.g. spectral imaging, Lidar, magnetics, gamma-ray spectroscopy),[185][186] and similar to those used in environmental monitoring, UAV-based data can produce maps of geological surface and subsurface features, contributing to more efficient and targeted mineral exploration.
[194] UAVs can threaten airspace security in numerous ways, including unintentional collisions or other interference with other aircraft, deliberate attacks or by distracting pilots or flight controllers.
Several security researchers have made public some vulnerabilities in commercial UAVs, in some cases even providing full source code or tools to reproduce their attacks.
As J. Rogers stated in a 2017 interview to A&T, "There is a big debate out there at the moment about what the best way is to counter these small UAVs, whether they are used by hobbyists causing a bit of a nuisance or in a more sinister manner by a terrorist actor".
[216] France was among the first countries to set a national framework based on this report and larger aviation bodies such as the FAA and the EASA quickly followed suit.
By providing this assurance to customers, the Class Identification Label helps to increase confidence in drone technology and encourages wider adoption across industries.
