Unmanned aerial vehicles

Citation

Scarpa, F. (2001), "Unmanned aerial vehicles", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 73 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2001.12773dag.001

Unmanned aerial vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles

During the last decade the design and use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has seen a rapid escalation, especially in military surveillance applications. The Net is becoming a powerful source of information also in this sector. A good site from where to start in order to obtain some background in UAV technologies is the NASA's unmanned aerial vehicles Web site (http://uav.wff.nasa.gov/index.html), hosted by the NASA Wallops Flight Facility. The site gives a brief historical background of the UAV's development from DOD in the late 1980s and 1990s, with an extensive database of technical specifications of existing UAVs in the market (and related links to the producers' Web sites). The site tries to offer information on UAV technologies devoted not only to military applications, but also to potential civilian users, with the introduction of a special classification on range and payload which distances itself from the classical military jargon.

An example of civilian (and scientific) application of UAV technologies is presented by the atmospheric radiation measurement unmanned aerospace vehicle (ARM-UAV) Web site hosted by the Atmospheric Science Department of the Colorado State University (http://armuav.atmos.colostate.edu/armuav.html). The Web page is well organised, with data products, science section, related links and access to data definitions. It is possible to download the data from flight tests by opening a free account at the ARM archive site. An image library with several gigabytes of files in JPEG format illustrates the ARM in flight operations. It is possible also to have information about the flight tracks of different test campaigns. Between the related links it is worthwhile to mention the ARM-UAV site of Sandia National Laboratories (http://www.ca.sandia.gov/pubs/ARMUAV/), although the page has not been updated recently.

An interesting watchtower of the current perspectives in UAV technologies is the UAV Forum (http://www.uavforum.com/). The site has URLs about library resources, events, vehicles, users, requirements and opportunities, together with a site map. The vehicles section offers a comparative table with the various performances for the different models in the market, together with charts and specifications diagrams. The forum is a work in progress, but definitely one of the most interesting sites related to the topics.

A good list of UAV-related sites is given by UAV Sites in Aviation Links (http://www.airnet.cwc.net/uavs.html). Between commercial and more established products, one can find information about unusual concepts like the Bipedal Onithopter by the Robot Group (http://www.robotgroup.org/projects/roboblimp.html), the Aerobot (http://w3.cablespeed.com/~chrisgood/uav/), the gun-launched observation vehicle (http://www.accurate-automation.com/proj/glov.html), or the VertiJet UAV, capable of vertical take-off and landing (http://www.verticraft.com/uav.htm). Another good list of Web sites related to UAVs is provided by the Dave Howard's UAV Resource Listing (http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Network/1854/uav.html). Beware that not all links work (as usual) 100 per cent.

Another important portal for UAVs information is the Web site of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (http://www.auvsi.org/). The site has an attractive graphical presentation, easy browsing with a quick index window menu and, more important, a comprehensive links list of events, products and symposiums. The site also allows browsing links related to ground and undersea unmanned vehicles, together with collegiate and corporate links.

A very interesting overview about current and future research and development activities in the UAV domain is offered by the Technical Analysis and Application Centre (TAAC) Web site (http://www.psl.nmsu.edu/uav/), with links to 1999 and 2000 symposiums. Most of the presentations are online in PowerPoint format.

In the field of solar powered UAV concepts, the site http://powerweb.lerc.nasa.gov/psi/DOC/spuav.html contains the paper "Solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles" by K.C. Reinhardt, T.R. Lamp, J.W. Gels and A. Colozza. The paper, presented at the Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference in Washington DC (1996), is perhaps one of the most remarkable references available in the field. Different configurations of photovoltaic modules, energy storage specific energy, altitudes and payload ranges are compared in a dual-boom UAV base airframe. All different configurations are compared against costs.

The Web page http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/sab-uav/uavstud.htm contains a summary of the 1996 "UAV technologies and combat operations" report from the US Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. Several volumes related to air vehicle parameters, system/sub-system elements and also human factor considerations compose the document. The volumes of the report are downloadable in .PDF format. Several animated videos with QuickTime are available, but could take a long time to be downloaded (you could also encounter availability problems). In any case, this is a very important source of information for people involved in UAV concept design.

Available online is also the UAV FY 1996 Annual Report (http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/daro/uav96/content.html). Although already five years old, it gives a very detailed oversight on the Defence Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO) policies towards UAV applications, with details of the use of Predators, Pioneers and Dark Star over Bosnia.

The Australian UAV Special Interest Group (http://www.aero.usyd.edu.au/wwwboard_uav/wwwboard_uav.html) has set-up a mailing list for a discussion board. The page links directly to the UAV SIG home (http://www.aero.usyd.edu.au/wwwuav/uavsig.html) hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Sydney. Once again, this page contains useful links to other UAV sites.

Finally, an educational site that is worth a mention is Chris Good's UAV page (http://w3.cablespeed.com/~chrisgood/uav/), with his own UAV flying wing project. I suggest every student or UAV fan should take a look at the page, for its completeness and clarity of explanations.

Fabrizio Scarpa