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unmanned air systems

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

www.nellis.af.mil/gallery/PublicAffairs/pages/UAV-Hellfire-Missile.htm

• Overview
• Examples of some earlier unmanned aircraft...
• Typical attributes of an Unmanned Aircraft
• Advantages of the UA over a manned aircraft
• Application space for Unmanned Aircraft
• Civilian Unmanned Aircraft applications
• Types of Unmanned Aircraft
• The US DoD UAS roadmap
• Outstanding Technical Challenges

Overview

The Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) consists of an Unmanned Aircraft (UA) which is essentially a robot plane togther with a Ground Control System (GCS). The Unmanned Aircraft contains a flight control computer, precision navigation (GPS and an Inertial Measurement Unit) and flight control electronics, a low vibration engine (such as a Wankel engine) and a payload, such as a high resolution camera. The UA represents a new, cost effective and more environmentally responsible approach to aerial reconnaissance and geophysical survey work.

Any aerial application, in which the payload weighs less than an average adult male (say 85 Kgs, although the US military allows a “worst case”soldier weight of 136 Kgs) could be performed less expensively and in a more environmentally friendly way, through the use of an Unmanned Air Vehicle.

Unmanned Aircraft have an historical military presence, in the form of the German V1 flying bomb of Second World War vintage, followed by the modern turbine-powered cruise missile, such as the US Tomahawk cruisemissile shown below, made by Raytheon. There are also some differences between the V1, the cruise missile and the UAV: the Unmanned Aircraft returns for reuse. The early civilian Unmanned Aircraft was in essence a radio controlled aeroplane.

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Characteristics of the above vehicles

An important parameter for military Unmanned Aircraft is their endurance time, whereas a prime parameter for civilian Unmanned Aircraft, especially those in use on survey work, is their range. For more interesting information on the history of Unmanned Aircraft, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles .

The inexpensive Unmanned Aircraft can criss-cross a region, or, repeatedly patrol an area, for up to 30 hours at a time, under computer control, day and night, under almost any weather condition, in an environmentally sustainable manner. This makes it a compelling solution for all manner of aerial reconnaissance and geophysical survey work. A comprehensive overview of Unmanned Aircraft is provided in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle .

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Here we compare an Unmanned Aircraft for use in geophysical survey work with a Cessna Skylane.

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• The UA can fly day-after-day, night-after-night, in dangerous weather conditions, for up to 30 hours at a time, on an accurate flight path, under computer control.
• Since Unmanned Aircraft can follow a precise flight path, they can fly close to each other to complete a survey in far less time than would be required for a manned aircraft.
• An advantage in using several Unmanned Aircraft is that an UA that develops a fault in any of its systems can be replaced by a back-up UA, ensuring the assigned task is always completed on time. Several Unmanned Aircraft can also measure data in thesame location in a survey, to provide quality data, by removing any instrument drift or errors.
• It can fly safely at low altitudes, enabling high resolution aeromagnetic mapping.
• Network Centric approach in which data from each UA in flight updates a server computer in real time, allowing users to view the latest information, via the Internet.
• It costs less to buy, to fly, to operate, to land and to dispose of than a piloted plane
• The UA is more environmentally friendly: it is small, uses less fuel, creates less CO₂ and is less noisy: 16 g/km fuel for a UA vs 152 g/km for a Cessna Skylane.

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Note the tremendous flight endurance for Unmanned Aircraft.

from http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/ncrst/meetings/20031202SBA-UAV2003/Presentations/Wegener1.pdf

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This photo is of the 2.7 Kg Dragon Eye UAV system at work in Fallujah. Photo by LTC Norm Root.

as posted on http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/articles/military_photos_20052111.asp

The 12,110 Kg Northrop Grumman “Global Hawk” with a range of 22,236 Km

- from http://www.northropgrumman.com/unmanned/

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The US military is spending an enormous amount of money and time on the development and deployment of Unmanned Air Systems, and it is instructive to learn of their progress. A comprehensive document on the activities and experience of the US military in this area is to be found in the latest UAS Roadmap 2007 - 2032:

Download from http://www.acq.osd.mil/usd/Unmanned%20Systems%20Roadmap.2007-2032.pdf or download a copy of the roadmap (12.250 MBytes) from the Barnard Microsystems site. Since both files are large, it may take some time after selecting to download either file before you see anything on the screen...

The older US DoD Road Map for 2005-2030 is also still available.

download uav_roadmap2005 (note this is a big document: 9.216 MBytes)

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• demonstrating precision flying, in terms of a defined flight path
• achieving high reliability, fail safe systems
• development of:

• a low vibration engine and a gyro stabilised, modular, payload mounting
• embedded, effective, “sense and avoid” intelligence
• a high data rate duplex communication link between the ground and UAVs
• a Network Centric infrastructure, to manage data from UAVs
• low cost, precision, magnetometer
• low cost and lightweight gravity meter
• a small, sensitive, ethane monitoring sensor
• automated image data compression algorithms
• automated data correction, fusion and interpretation software

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