Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: an Overview Maria De Fátima Bento
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WORKING PAPERS Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: MARIA DE FÁTIMA BENto An Overview A Raven B Mini UAV, during system checks before its maiden flight over Kirkuk,Iraq U.S. Air Force Photo/Senior Airman Jeremy McGuffin Imagine yourself in the middle of a battlefield with only one truly compelling objective: to maneuver yourself from one point to another and execute your mission — with the reward of your own survival. One eye on the threat, one eye on the horizon! Tension perhaps a deep fear seizes you as you confront mortal danger. This is your last shot! Wouldn’t you rather make it while seated behind a desk at a mission control station far from the raging conflict, directing an aerial vehicle without a human on board?A powered, aerial vehicle that can do more for than you could personally on the battlefield yourself? nce we tried to Google “UAV” and commercial tasks as data and image The purpose of this column is to and got more than two million acquisition of disaster areas, map build- give the reader an overview of the large citations on the Internet. ing, communication relays, search and number of existing UAV systems and O Try to find the definition rescue, traffic surveillance, and so on. R&D projects as well as the practical of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and A UAV can be remotely controlled, challenges facing UAV designers and you’ll uncover a welter of choices in the semi-autonomous, autonomous, or a applications. literature. So, let’s just say that a UAV combination of these, capable of per- is an aerial vehicle capable of sustained forming as many tasks as you can imag- UAV Classification flight without the need for a human ine, including saving your life. Nowa- Several different groups have proposed operator onboard. days, UAVs perform a variety of tasks creation of reference standards for the Although unmanned aerial vehicles in both military and civil/commercial international UAV community. The (UAVs) are mostly used in military appli- markets. Indeed, many different types European Association of Unmanned cations nowadays, the UAVs can also of UAVs exist with different capabilities Vehicles Systems (EUROUVS ) has perform such scientific, public safety, responding to different user needs. drawn up a classification of UAV systems 54 InsideGNSS JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 www.insidegnss.com WORKING PAPERS based on such parameters as flight alti- ing UAVs with examples of their usual smallest platforms that also fly at lower tude, endurance, speed, maximum take missions. altitudes (under 300 meters). Designs off weight (MTOW), size, and so forth. Table 1 identifies four UAVs main for this class of device have focused on We should stress the fact that EUROU- categories: micro/mini UAVs (MAV/ creating UAVs that can operate in urban VS did not create this classification for Mini), tactical UAVs (TUAVs), strategic canyons or even inside buildings, flying certification purposes, but rather with UAVs, and the special task UAVs where along hallways, carrying listening and the main purpose of compiling a uni- only the Decoy and Lethal are currently recording devices, transmitters, or min- versal catalog of UAVs categories as well flying. Let’s take a closer look at each of iature TV cameras. as their associated acronyms. these. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Table 1, adapted from a EUROUVS Micro and Mini UAVs. Micro and mini Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed publication, presents the various exist- UAVs comprise the category of the a set of criteria with which to distinguish Category Maximum Take Maximum Flight Endurance Data Link Example (acronym) Off Weight (kg) Altitude (m) (hours) Range (Km) Missions Systems Micro/Mini UAVs Micro (MAV) 0.10 250 1 < 10 Scouting, NBC sampling, Black Widow, MicroStar, Microbat, surveillance inside buildings FanCopter, QuattroCopter, Mos- quito, Hornet, Mite Mini < 30 150-300 < 2 < 10 Film and broadcast industries, Mikado, Aladin, Tracker, DragonEye, agriculture, pollution Raven, Pointer II, Carolo C40/P50, measurements, surveillance Skorpio, R-Max and R-50, Robo- inside buildings, communica- Copter, YH-300SL tions relay and EW Tactical UAVs Close Range (CR) 150 3.000 2-4 10-30 RSTA, mine detection, search Observer I, Phantom, Copter 4, & rescue, EW Mikado, RoboCopter 300, Pointer, Camcopter, Aerial and Agricultural RMax Short Range (SR) 200 3.000 3-6 30-70 BDA, RSTA, EW, mine detec- Scorpi 6/30, Luna, SilverFox, tion EyeView, Firebird, R-Max Agri/ Photo, Hornet, Raven, phantom, GoldenEye 100, Flyrt, Neptune Medium Range 150-500 3.000-5.000 6-10 70-200 BDA, RSTA, EW, mine detec- Hunter B, Mücke, Aerostar, Sniper, (MR) tion, NBC sampling Falco, Armor X7, Smart UAV, UCAR, Eagle Eye+, Alice, Extender, Shadow 200/400 Long Range (LR) - 5.000 6-13 200-500 RSTA, BDA, communications Hunter, Vigilante 502 relay Endurance (EN) 500-1.500 5.000-8.000 12-24 > 500 BDA, RSTA, EW, communica- Aerosonde, Vulture II Exp, tions relay, NBC sampling Shadow 600, Searcher II, Hermes 450S/450T/700 Medium Altitude, 1.000-1.500 5.000-8.000 24-48 > 500 BDA, RSTA, EW weapons Skyforce, Hermes 1500, Heron TP, Long Endurance delivery, communications MQ-1 Predator, Predator-IT, Eagle- (MALE) relay, NBC sampling 1/2, Darkstar, E-Hunter, Dominator Strategic UAVs High Altitude, 2.500-12.500 15.000-20.000 24-48 > 2.000 BDA, RSTA, EW, communica- Global Hawk, Raptor, Condor, Long Endurance tions relay, boost phase Theseus, Helios, Predator B/C, (HALE) intercept launch vehicle, Libellule, EuroHawk, Mercator, airport security SensorCraft, Global Observer, Pathfinder Plus, Special Task UAVs Lethal (LET) 250 3.000-4.000 3-4 300 Anti-radar, anti-ship, anti- MALI, Harpy, Lark, Marula aircraft, anti-infrastructure Decoys (DEC) 250 50-5.000 < 4 0-500 Aerial and naval deception Flyrt, MALD, Nulka, ITALD, Chukar Stratospheric TBD 20.000-30.000 > 48 > 2.000 - Pegasus (Strato) Exo-strato- TBD > 30.000 TBD TBD - MarsFlyer, MAC-1 spheric (EXO) Source: Adapted from “UVS-International-“UAV System producers & Models: All UAV Systems Referenced,” 2006 TABLE 1. UAV Classification www.insidegnss.com JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 InsideGNSS 55 WORKING PAPERS Micro UAVs Requirements: of vertical take off and landing (VTOL) these purposes as a result of their large Specification Requirement — in the near future micro UAVs are dimensions and high capabilities. Size < 15 cm expected to become more practical and Strategic UAVs. As our discussion to Weight 100 g prevalent. Thus, the prospects are good this point suggests, at higher altitudes Payload 20 g for micro and mini UAVs to become UAVs tend to be heavier platforms with intelligent “aerial robots,” that is, fully longer range and endurance. Indeed, Range 1-10 Km autonomous thinking machines. that makes sense, because big platforms Endurance 60 min Tactical UAVs. This category includes can carry a larger payload and, in order Altitude < 150 m heavier platforms flying at higher alti- to reach greater distances while fly- Speed 15 m/s tudes (from 3,000 to 8,000 meters). ing for longer time, they require more Source: “Challenges facing future micro air vehicle Unlike micro and mini UAVs, which are energy. Thus, big platforms are usually development”, D.J. Pines & F. Bohorquez AIAA Journal mostly used for civil/commercial appli- used for high altitude, long endurance of Aircraft, April 2006 cations, tactical UAVs primarily support and long range purposes as is the case TABLE 2. Mav requirements military applications. of the High Altitude Long Endurance Referring again to Table 1 criteria, (HALE) UAVs, which comprise the micro UAV. These criteria are presented tactical UAVs can be divided in six heaviest UAVs. in Table 2. subcategories: Close range (CR), Short HALE platforms are strategic UAVs With the DARPA requirements in Range (SR), Medium Range (MR), Long with a MTOW varying from 2.500 mind and referring to some of the sys- Range (LR), Endurance (EN), and, kilograms up to 12.000 kilograms and a tems and performance specifications finally, Medium Altitude Long Range maximum flight altitude of about 20,000 presented in Table 1, we can see that (MALE) UAVs. meters. They are highly automated, with certain small UAVs systems identified in The lack of satellite communications takeoffs and landings being performed the literature don’t actually satisfy all the (Satcom) systems limits the distances automatically. At any time during its DARPA requirements yet. These include over which close-, short-, and medium- mission the ground control station the Black Widow and Microbat from range UAVs can operate. The absence of (GCS) can control the HALE UAV. Aerovironment, the FanCopter by EMT, Satcom equipment is mainly due to the Northrop Grumman’s military UAV, the and the MicroStar by BAESystems. size, weight, and cost of antennas for this Global Hawk, with 35 hours of endur- The ambitious performance goals type of UAV. ance is probably the most well-known represented in Table 2 are still unat- Long-range UAVs, however, must HALE UAV and offers truly remarkable tained, perhaps due to the fact that not use more advanced technology in order performance. all technologies are scalable yet and also to achieve their missions. Usually, this An example of a non-military HALE to UAV designers’ inability to overcome means incorporating a satellite link or is the electric/solar-powered Helios from environmental constraints with avail- another platform acting as a relay, in Aerovironment operated by NASA. The able technology. order to overcome the communication Helios uses solar panels to power elec- The development of micro-elec- problem between the ground station and trically driven propellers and has set tromechanical systems (MEMS) in a UAV caused by the earth’s curvature. an altitude record of about 30.000 kilo- recent years may help overcome these Medium-range UAV platforms fea- meters.