INTRODUCTION TO

UNMANNED AERIAL
SYSTEMS (UAS)
ENGR. JEMMIL JOHN B. CASABUENA
VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF UAV
• In 1883, an Englishman named Douglas Archibald attached an anemometer
to the line of a kite and measured wind velocity at altitudes up to 1,200 ft.
• Mr. Archibald attached cameras to kites in 1887, providing one of the
world’s first reconnaissance UAVs.
• William Eddy in 1898 took hundreds of photographs from kites during the
Spanish-American war, which may have been one of the first uses of UAVs in
combat.
• It was not until the World War I, however, that
UAVs became recognized systems. Charles
Kettering (of General Motors fame) developed
a biplane UAV for the Army Signal Corps. It
took about 3 years to develop and was called
the Kettering Aerial Torpedo but is better
known as the “Kettering Bug” or just plain
“Bug.”
• The Bug could fly nearly 40 mi at 55 mi/h and
carry 180 lb. of high explosives. The air vehicle
was guided to the target by preset controls
and had detachable wings that were released
when over the target allowing the fuselage to
plunge to the ground as a bomb.
UNMANNED AERIAL
VEHICLE (UAV)

• Known by various names, such as remotely

piloted aircraft (RPA), unmanned air system
(UAS), or [drones].
• Aircraft with its aircrew removed and
replaced by a computer system.
AIR VEHICLE

• Airborne part of the system

• Includes the airframe, means of propulsion, flight
controls, air data terminal, etc.
• Carries the payload
• Performance, design, and type of air vehicle is
dependent on their mission or purpose.
• Has different configurations. Most common are
helicopter, compounded helicopter, convertible,
and autogyro.
HELICOPTER
CONFIGURATION
• Offers the most efficient hover
• Low-speed performance
• Most insensitive to air
turbulence due to its high
rotor-blade loading
 COMPOUNDED HELICOPTER CONFIGURATION

• Add wings and/or a propulsive system to a

basic helicopter in order to reduce the thrust
required from the rotor and enable the aircraft
to achieve higher speeds.
• The addition of a wing can give a helicopter a
speed of over 200 kts.
• Considerable cost in reduction of payload and
endurance.
CONVERTIBLE
CONFIGURATION
• Attempts to achieve a viable
compromise between the
requirement to take off and land
vertically and have a long
endurance. This is achieved by
lifting off with the rotor(s)
horizontal but tilting them into a
vertical plane to become
propellers for cruise flight with
the weight of the aircraft being
borne upon wings.
• These configurations suffer a
payload weight penalty compared
with either a helicopter or
fixed-wing aircraft.
AUTOGYRO
CONFIGURATION
• Attempts to dispense with the
transmission system of the
helicopter in the interest of
reducing complexity.
• Cannot hover
• Able to fly considerably more
slowly than fixed-wing
PAYLOAD
• Depends on the mission or purpose.
• Can be camera (thermal, infrared,
employed with facial recognition system,
etc.)
• Can be sensors
• Can be agriculture tools (monitoring or
spraying)
• Can be atmospheric sensors
• Can be audio recording equipment
• Can be jamming devices.
• Can be packages
• Can be weapons, artillery, explosives,
etc.
• Can be photogrammetry equipment (for
accurate maps and 3D models)
CONTROL STATION
• Is the control center of the operation and the
man–machine interface. Control station can be
handheld device or permanent structures.
• Usually, can be the center in which the UAV
mission is pre-planned, in which case it may be
known as the mission planning and control
station (MPCS).
• Less usually, the mission may be planned from a
central command center and the mission data is
sent to the CS for its execution.
• The operators ‘speak’ to the aircraft via the
communications system up-link in order to
direct its flight profile and to operate the
various types of mission ‘payload’ that it carries.
Similarly, via the communications down-link,
the aircraft returns information to the
operators, whether it may be images, current
position, status, etc.
• The Control Station will usually also house the
systems for communication with other external
systems. These may include means of acquiring
weather data, transfer of information from and
to other systems in the network, tasking from
higher authority and the reporting of
information back to that or other authorities.
COMMUNICATIONS
• The transmission medium is most usually at radio
frequency, but possible alternatives may be by
light in the form of a laser beam or via optical
fibers. The tasks of the data links are usually as
follows:
❖ Uplink (i.e. from the CS to the aircraft):
❖ Downlink (i.e. from the aircraft to the CS):
• The level of electrical power, complexity of the
processing and the antennae design, and weight
and cost of the radio communications will be
determined by:
❖ The range of operation of the air vehicle from the
transmitting station;
❖ The sophistication demanded by
transmission-down of the payload and
housekeeping data;
❖ The need for security.
NAVIGATION SYSTEMS
• For fully autonomous operation, i.e. without
any communication between the Control
Station and the air vehicle, sufficient
navigation equipment must be carried in the
aircraft.
• For non-autonomous operation, i.e. where
communication between aircraft and CS is
virtually continuous, or where there is a risk
of the GPS system being blocked, other
means of navigation are possible fallback
options. These methods include:
❖ Radar tracking - aircraft is fitted with a
transponder which responds to a radar
scanner emitting from the CS
❖ Radio signal tracking. - radio signal carrying
data from the aircraft to the CS is tracked in
bearing from the CS; its range is determined
from the time taken for a coded signal to
travel between the aircraft and the CS
❖ Direct reckoning (with camera) - relating
visible geographical features with their
known position on a map
LAUNCH, RECOVERY,
AND RETRIEVAL
EQUIPMENT
• Launch equipment – usually
takes the form of a ramp along
which the aircraft is accelerated
on a trolley. This will be
required for those air vehicles
which do not have a vertical
flight capability, nor have access
to a runway of suitable surface
and length.
LAUNCH, RECOVERY,
AND RETRIEVAL
EQUIPMENT
• Recovery Equipment – usually takes the
form of a parachute, installed within the
aircraft, and which is deployed at a
suitable altitude over the landing zone.
This also will usually be required for
aircraft without a vertical flight capability.
• In addition, a means of absorbing the
impact energy is needed, usually
comprising airbags or replaceable
frangible material.
• An alternative form of recovery
equipment, sometimes used, is a large net.
• Retrieval Equipment – Unless the aircraft
is lightweight enough to be man-portable,
a means is required of transporting the
aircraft back to its launcher.
TYPES AND CATEGORIES
OF UAVs
HALE

• High Altitude Long Endurance

• Over 15,000 m altitude and 24+
hrs. endurance.
• They carry out extremely
long-range (trans-global)
reconnaissance and surveillance
and increasingly are being armed.
MALE
• Medium Altitude Long Endurance
• 5,000 – 15,000 m altitude and 24
hrs. endurance.
• Their roles are similar to the HALE
systems but generally operate at
somewhat shorter ranges, but still
in excess of 500 km. and from fixed
bases.
 • Medium Range or Tactical UAV
• With range of order between 100 and 300
km.
TUAV • These air vehicles are smaller and operated
within simpler systems than HALE or MALE.
CLOSE RANGE
UAV
• used by mobile army battle
groups, for other military/naval
operations and for diverse
civilian purposes.
• usually operate at ranges of up
to about 100 km
• have probably the most prolific
of uses in both fields, including
roles as diverse as
reconnaissance, target
designation, NBC monitoring,
airfield security, ship-to-shore
surveillance, power-line
inspection, crop-spraying and
traffic monitoring, etc.
MUAV or MINI
UAV
• relates to UAV of below a
certain mass (yet to be
defined) probably below 20
kg, but not as small as the
MAV, capable of being
hand-launched and operating
at ranges of up to about 30 km.
These are, again, used by
mobile battle groups and
particularly for diverse civilian
purposes.
MAV or MICRO
UAV
• originally defined as a UAV
having a wing-span no
greater than 150 mm.
• Principally required for
operations in urban
environments, particularly
within buildings.
• It is required to fly slowly,
and preferably to hover and
to ‘perch’ – i.e. to be able to
stop and to sit on a wall or
post.
NAV or NANO
AIR VEHICLES
• Proposed to be of the size of
sycamore seeds and used in
swarms for purposes such as
radar confusion or
conceivably, if camera,
propulsion and control
sub-systems can be made
small enough, for ultra
short-range surveillance.
RPH or REMOTELY
PILOTED
HELICOPTER/VTUAV or
VERTICAL TAKEOFF UAV

• Capable of vertical takeoff and

landing.
• Can hover
• Less susceptible to air
turbulence
UCAV and UCAR
• Unmanned Combat Air
Vehicle and Unmanned
Combat Rotorcraft
• May launch weapons or even
take part in air-to-air
combat.
 • Other terms which may sometimes be seen, but are less
commonly used today, were related to the radius of action
in operation of the various classes. They are:
❖ Long-range UAV – replaced by HALE and MALE
❖ Medium-range UAV – replaced by TUAV
❖ Close-range UAV – often referred to as MUAV or mini-UAV
SIGNIFICANCE AND
ROLES OF UAS
• Dull Roles
• Dirty Roles
• Dangerous Roles
• Covert Roles
• Research Roles
• Environmentally Critical
Roles
• Economic Reasons
DULL ROLES

• Military and civilian applications such

as extended surveillance can be a
dulling experience for aircrew, with
many hours spent on watch without
relief, and can lead to a loss of
concentration and therefore loss of
mission effectiveness.
• UAV can be more effective as well as
cheaper to operate in such roles.
DIRTY ROLES
• Applicable to both civilian and military
applications, monitoring the environment for
nuclear or chemical contamination puts aircrew
unnecessarily at risk.
• Subsequent detoxification of the aircraft is
easier in the case of the UAV.
• Crop-spraying with toxic chemicals is another
dirty role which now is conducted very
successfully by UAV.
DANGEROUS
ROLES
• For military roles, where the
reconnaissance of heavily defended
areas is necessary, the attrition rate of
a manned aircraft is likely to exceed
that of a UAV.
• Due to its smaller size and greater
stealth, the UAV is more difficult for an
enemy air defense system to detect
and more difficult to strike with
anti-aircraft fire or missiles.
• Loss of the asset is damaging, but
equally damaging is the loss of trained
aircrew.
• Power-line inspection and forest fire
control are examples of applications in
the civilian field for which experience
sadly has shown that manned aircraft
crew can be in significant danger. UAV
can carry out such tasks more readily
and without risk to personnel.
 • In both military and civilian policing
operations there are roles where it is
imperative not to alert the ‘enemy’ (other
COVERT ROLES armed forces or criminals) to the fact that
they have been detected. The lower
detectable signatures of the UAV make this
type of role more readily achievable.
RESEARCH ROLES
• UAVs are being used in research and
development work in the aeronautical field. For
test purposes, the use of UAV as small-scale
replicas of projected civil or military designs of
manned aircraft enables airborne testing to be
carried out, under realistic conditions, more
cheaply and with less hazard.
ENVIRONMENTALLY
CRITICAL ROLES
• This aspect relates predominantly to civilian
roles. A UAV will usually cause less
environmental disturbance or pollution than a
manned aircraft pursuing the same task. It will
usually be smaller, of lower mass and consume
less power, so producing lower levels of
emission and noise.
ECONOMIC ROLES
• Typically, the UAV is smaller than a manned
aircraft used in the same role and is usually
considerably cheaper in first cost. Operating
costs are less since maintenance costs, fuel costs
and hangar costs are all less. The labor costs of
operators are usually lower, and insurance may
be cheaper, though this is dependent upon
individual circumstances.
APPLICATIONS OF UAS
•CIVILLIAN USES
• Aerial Photography
• Agriculture
• Meteorological services
• Fire Services and Forestry
• Electricity companies
•MILITARY USES
• Reconnaissance
• Elimination of unexploded bombs
• Decoying missiles by the emission of artificial
signatures
• Weapon
THANK YOU!