Finally, the payload requirements are very specific to the devices in question (e.g., radar, electrooptical and infrared sensors, communication repeaters, and weapons), and research support for them would be more appropriately provided by the relevant scientific and engineering subspecialties. Similarly, conventional actuators, such as hydraulic actuators and EMAs, require more support for engineering development and manufacture than for basic research. For example, the development of onboard and off-board hardware and software technologies for information processing, storage, and display is being driven by the commercial marketplace, and USAF investments will generally have only a small effect. Specialty sensors and actuators, especially MEMS devices, to support some of the unconventional aerodynamics described in Chapter 3Īlthough other elements in Figure 7-1 are also critically important to the overall UAV system, the committee believes less compelling cases can be made for USAF basic research in these areas. The capacity, security, and robustness built into communications links The allocation of tasks and construction of interfaces between humans and capable machines The challenge is to increase this knowledge so that designing complex autonomous systems becomes routine-that is, the integrated designs will be capable, reliable, trustworthy, and affordable.Īlthough research and development will be necessary for all of the elements illustrated in Figure 7-1, this report focuses on the four areas that present the most compelling case for USAF-supported basic research:įIGURE 7-1 Integrated UAV control scenario.īuilt-in intelligence, or control “smarts,” designed into system architectures and into onboard and off-board processing elements However, automating real engineering systems in the absence of strong supporting scientific knowledge often creates problems. Similar scenarios are used today in various applications at different levels of sophistication. These integrated scenarios are not futuristic. The committee envisions that UAVs will operate in integrated scenarios ( Figure 7-1) involving several vehicles with specified missions to be accomplished by the collective with communication links among vehicles and between vehicles and with remote human-operated control sites (perhaps in the local area, perhaps continents away) and with onboard and off-board sensing, actuation, and information processing capabilities to conduct vehicle and payload operations with a high degree of autonomy. The word control is used here to cover the entire gamut of automation, from inner-loop feedback servos to dynamic alterations of mission strategies in response to near-real-time surveillance of the consequences of past strategic actions. The utility, effectiveness, and acceptance of UAVs will depend on the exploitation of the capabilities, and recognition of the limitations, of control technologies.
UAVs rely more heavily on autonomous internal machine and remote links to humans than other systems. Beyond the differences in materials, structures, propulsion, and aerodynamic design, the single fundamental feature that most distinguishes UAVs from other aerial vehicles is control.