Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly important in both civil and military roles. UAVs depend totally on avionic systems in order to function and carry out their mission, and this chapter provides an overview of the current situation.
It is explained that the advantage of UAVs is their ability to perform dangerous, sensitive or dull tasks in an efficient manner. They are widely used in a range of surveillance tasks from battlefield surveillance and target acquisition at fairly low altitudes to long range surveillance/reconnaissance missions carried out at very high altitude. UAVs also have potentially many civil uses, but it is explained that the main obstacles to their civilian use are resolving safety and legislative issues.
The avionic systems covered in this book are generally, equally applicable to both manned and unmanned aircraft. This chapter looks at the application of the following to UAVs:
Displays and man-machine interaction.
Aerodynamics and flight control.
Fly-by-wire control.
Inertial sensors and attitude derivation.
Navigation systems.
Air data system.
Autopilots and flight management systems.
Integrated avionics systems.
Finally, a brief overview of the following UAVs/UCAVs is given:
‘Watchkeeper’ battlefield surveillance system
MQ-9 ‘Reaper’ UCAV system.
‘Taranis’ UCAV demonstrator
‘Draganflyer’ X-6 portable surveillance helicopter UAV.
Unmanned Air Vehicles
Introduction to Avionics Systems ; Kapitel : 10 ; 303-308
2023-06-02
6 pages
Aufsatz/Kapitel (Buch)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Aerodynamics and flight control , Air data system , Autopilots and flight management systems , Displays and man-machine interaction , Fly-by-wire control , Inertial sensors and attitude derivation , Integrated avionics systems , Navigation systems , Terrain reference navigation , Unmanned air vehicles including remotely piloted vehicles , Uninhabited combat air vehicles and unmanned aircraft Engineering , Aerospace Technology and Astronautics , Electronics and Microelectronics, Instrumentation