Chinese Journal of Electronics

Vol.29, No.2, Mar. 2020

Review on the Technological Development and

Abstract — Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are application scenarios, but do not create any ambiguity
products of deep integration of aviation technology and in the context.
Information technology (IT). The core factor of why
the UAV industry can become a relatively independent
industry and experience rapid development is the full
I. Technical Composition of UAV
penetration of IT into the aviation industry. Under the Systems
networked environment, UAVs are now becoming data-
driven mobile agents. With the development of information The rapid development of a new round of scientific
technology, information transmission networking, opera- and technological changes has brought continuous
tion space digitizing, and flight platform intelligentizing breakthroughs of new technologies, new materials, and
will become the main trends of technological development new manufacturing processes in the fields of aviation
of UAV systems. The application of UAV systems is
manufacturing and information industry. The integration
not merely a paradigm in transportation, but will more
importantly produce “UAV+” novel production modes,
and application of these technological advances in UAV
service formats, and combat modes associated with UAVs. systems have also enabled the technical composition of
These emerging trends will have profound impacts on UAV ystems to undergo profound changes.
future economic and social development as well as the
The aviation technology of UAV Systems mainly
building of armed forces.
includes the platform manufacturing technology, flight
Key words — Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), control and navigation technologies, energy and power
Information technology (IT), Information network, Data technologies, and the mission payload technology[3] : 1)
driven, Mobile agent. The UAV platform manufacturing technology mainly
includes aerodynamic technology, aeroelastic technology,
An Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) refers to a and composite structural material technology; 2) The
power-driven and reusable aerial vehicle without on- flight control and navigation technologies mainly consist
board manual control (by remote control or autonomous of TT&C link technology, flight situational aware-
control)[1] . The UAV system is mainly composed of UAV ness technology, navigation and positioning technology,
platform(s), Telemetry, telecontrol and communication planning and coordination technology, flight control
(TT&C) equipment, mission payloads, information law design and reconstruction technology, autonomous
processing equipment, and various support equipment. behavior decision-making technology, and flight safety
It is the product formed through deep integration of management technology; 3) The energy and power
aviation technology and Information technology (IT). technologies mainly include fuel technology, battery
Currently, “UAV” has been referred to by many different technology, fuel cell composite technology, engine
terminologies, such as Drone, Remotely piloted vehicle technology, and new concept energy and power propulsion
(RPV), Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), Unmanned technology; 4) The mission payload technology is mainly
aircraft system (UAS), and Remotely piloted aircraft determined by the task type. For example, remote sensing
system (RPAS)[2] . These terms were formed at different mission mainly includes various types of photoelectric,
stages of technological development or under different radar and passive sensor technologies. In general, aviation

Manuscript Received Sept. 20, 2019; Accepted Oct. 7, 2019. This work is supported by the Chinese Academy of Engineering Consulting
Research Project (No.2017-XY-05, No.2018-XZ-02, No.2019-ZD-10).
© 2020 Chinese Institute of Electronics. DOI:10.1049/cje.2019.12.006
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200 Chinese Journal of Electronics 2020

technology has no essential difference between manned computing technology will become a key technology to
aircrafts and UAV platforms. However, since the UAV make UAVs more intelligent in networked communication
system has no airborne pilots and is not restricted by environments.
human physiological conditions, it has flexible models, 3) The big data technology is to collect and
long battery life, large overload, and wide range of flight comprehensively develop and utilize the massive data
speed and airspace. Thus a number of new concept UAVs gathered by the sensor nodes of UAV systems. These
have emerged with new aerodynamic layouts, new energy data are generated from many fields, such as geodetic
sources, and new power propulsion modes (e.g., wing- surveying, land and resources survey, meteorological
flapping drones, miniature drones, high-altitude high- exploration, traffic supervision, industrial, agricultural
speed drones). and forestry production, logistics and transportation, and
The development of information technology in the entertainment consumption. Therefore, fully mining the
past few decades has become an important driving force potential information and its value contained in these
for the development of the UAV industry, and helped data will bring huge economic and social benefits. It can
solve a series of bottleneck problems for UAV systems, be foreseen that the development in UAVs’ application
such as navigation and positioning, automatic control, will enable the sensor portfolio, data acquisition rate,
telecontrol and telemetry, information transmission and and data volume to experience exponential growth
processing, mission payloads and so on. The information continuously. And undoubtedly, the in-depth application
technology in Post-information age primarily comprises of big data technology will greatly enhance the overall
networked communication, cloud computing, big data, efficiency of the development of the UAV industry.
and Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, which will 4) The AI technology aims to combine the data-
bring new opportunities for the development of the UAV driven analysis with the knowledge-driven analysis by
industry. The main contributions and the importance of developing the big data technology, computing power,
these new technologies for the UAV indutry are briefly and AI algorithms for the UAV field, which will constantly
introduced as follows: improve the intelligent perception, autonomous flight,
1) The networked communication technology aims and intelligent reasoning and decision-making capabilities
to establish a networked communication environment for of UAV systems in complex task environments. With
the operation of UAVs. This networked communication the rapid development of AI technology and in-depth
environment is formed through the integration of integration with other technologies, AI will become the
networked infrastructure (e.g., mobile communication most disruptive technology in the development of UAV
network, Internet, low-orbit satellite network) with systems.
the ad-hoc network technology of UAV systems. The In summary, the outstanding characteristics of the
networked communication technology is the common technological development of UAV systems are mainly
fundamental technology shared by flight measurement reflected in the deep integration of aviation technology
and control, airspace supervision, and application services and information technology. In other words, the core
of UAV systems. factor of why the UAV industry can become a relatively
independent industry and experience rapid development,
2) The cloud computing technology refers to the
is that information technology comprehensively permeats
cloud-based real-time analysis of the massive data
into the aviation industry. Thus, the deep integration of
acquired by UAVs under the support of the networked
information technology into UAV systems will become
communication environment. This technology allows for
an important way of technological upgrading for UAV
extracting the effective information from the collected
systems.
data and sending it to UAV platforms or the ground users
for application, which overcomes the inherent limitation II. Technological Development Trend
in the real-time data processing/computing and storage
Analysis for UAV Systems
on UAV platforms. A typical example in the agricultural
field is to use UAVs to obtain the spectral information The field of UAV systems will ride a big wave
from the farmland in real time and upload it to a of revolutionary breakthroughs occured with grouped
third-party cloud platform. This third-party platform emergence in multiple technologies, such as platform
then analyze the data to assess soil moisture, pest and manufacturing, flight control and navigation, energy
disease conditions, fertilization cycle, and crop yield, and and power, mission payloads, networked communication,
subsequently feed back such information to the farmers cloud computing, big data, and artificial intelligence. Mul-
for use. In this way, there is no requirement for every tidisciplinary technologies will be increasingly integrated
drone user or farmer to purchase and install a data into the application of UAVs, and disruptive technological
analysis and evaluation system. Therefore, the cloud innovations will emerge continuously. Ultimately, UAVs
 20755597, 2020, 2, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/cje.2019.12.006 by Bangladesh Hinari NPL, Wiley Online Library on [06/07/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Review on the Technological Development and Application of UAV Systems 201

will transform into data-driven aerial mobile agents in tracking and positioning of UAV systems, thus achieve
the networked environment. Although the UAV plat- networked coordination of UAV flights and collaborative
form technology still requires multiple innovations and execution of tasks.
development, Networking of information transmission, 2) The transparency mechanism for network users
Digitization of operation space, and Intelligentization of can be utilized to realize networked management and
flight platforms will become the main trends of future control of UAV flights. In addition, the UAV flight
UAV system technology development. These three trends management and control can be incorporated into the
can be regarded as the contribution of information national airspace management system.
technology to UAV system development which are
3) The existing communication systems, sites, trans-
analyzed as following.
mission networks, and platform resources, will be utilized
1. Networking of information transmission to provide civilian UAV systems with data distribution,
Communication is the key to realizing seamless links storage and analysis services which can help achieve the
between the flight measurement and control system, effective integration of “Internet+” and “UAV+”. For
application service system, and air traffic-control system example, relying on the integrated network infrastructure
for UAVs[4] . Currently, the communication technology and the ad-hoc network technology of UAV systems,
of the flight measurement and control system and the using a dedicated frequency, a networked communication
application service system is mainly realized by the environment for the low-altitude operation of UAV
“station-UAV-link” operation and control mode. More systems below 7,000 meters, can be construced. This
specifically， by taking advantage of the TT&C link, will help form a networked low-altitude flight service
different types of stations including the handheld remote guarantee system with a clear functional hierarchy,
control, the portable control station, the vehicle-mounted reasonable system layout, and resource data-sharing
station and the fixed station are combined with the function to fully cover the low-altitude airspace and
UAV flight platforms, to form different UAV systems general airports. This system will provide effective route
of various forms such as “single station-single UAV”, planning, aeronautical meteorology, flight information,
“single station-multiple UAVs”, “multiple stations-single warning, and assisting rescue services for low-altitude
UAV”, and “multiple stations-multiple UAVs”. There are operation of UAVs. It will also provide networked
many problems with this mode such as high system- communication environment support for the reformation
construction cost, limited frequency resources and control of airspace management systems and the development of
range, and difficult coordination of multiple USVs. From the general aviation industry.
the perspective of airspace management, the flight of Integrating UAVs into the information transmission
UAVs is mainly managed and achieved through air traffic- networked communication environment, can allow the
control methods based on the regulation of available user to take full advantage of the merits of the UAV
flight routes. The flight of general aircraft must follow platform including high flexibility and diverse sensor data.
planned routes and rely on guidance from the fixed radars It also can help achieve more efficient human-computer
and navigation platforms. Once the aircraft is out of interaction, interoperability, and mutual understanding.
the routed area, the civil aviation department can no As long as UAVs connect the flight status information
longer know its flight situation in real time. However, and acquired application information to the cloud system
this method does not meet the need for large-scale, large- through the network, in the cloud side of the Internet
range, and intensive use of USVs for future flight missions. of things, the operating status of UAV platforms and
With the rapid development of network communica- sensors can be monitored in real time. Meanwhile, based
tion technology, the flexible utilization of various ground- on the operating status, the airspace management can be
based network communication infrastructure, low-orbit optimized in real time. It is like UAVs will become “flying
satellite network, and the ad-hoc network technology of mobile phones”.
UAV systems， can construct an integrated, practical, By the support of mobile Internet, mobil phone-
reliable, and extensible networked operating environment based industrial ecosystem such as APPs, gets rapid
of UAV information transmission. This will trigger development. Similarly, the industrial ecosystem based
revolutionary changes of flight measurement and control, on UAVs will undergo rapid development under the
airspace supervision and management, and application networked communication environment for information
services for UAV systems, which are mainly reflected in transmission. Social application services, such as the UAV
the following three aspects: industry Apps, will also become available to thousands
1) The networked operating environment of UAV of households. In particular, the wide application of 5G
information transmission can help realize networked (the 5th Generation) mobile communication technology,
telemetry and telecontrol, information transmission, and will help realize networked “5G+UAVs” information
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202 Chinese Journal of Electronics 2020

transmission, so more efficient UAV application service dynamic targets (such as other aircrafts, flying insects and
modes will emerge. As an example, in March 2019 birds, and kites) included, furthermore, the emvironments
based on the WoTianyu UAV service platform, China such as electric fields and magnetic fields are also included.
Unicom realized the medium- and low-altitude over-the- The last aspect, aims at the case of multiple UAVs
horizon 4K high-definition video transmission test for in the formation flying environment. The corresponding
commercial applications, such as natural gas pipeline UAV neighborhood location calculation technology can
inspection. This became the world’s first quasi-5G be used for the fields of route planning, task regulation,
industrial UAV application case targeting commercial use and airspace supervision and management in complex
and unveiled the mystery of the “5G+UAVs” commercial environments. The scene is like the grouping flying way of
application. It is believed that 5G technology will provide birds or insects. This kind of technology needs to model
unprecedented opportunities for the development of the and compute the completely real environments of group
UAV industry, and UAVs will definately become an flying, and study and resolve a series of problems such
important application scenario for 5G technology. as collaborative control between different UAV inside the
2. Digitization of operation space flight formation of UAVs and the neighborhood location
The digitization of UAV operation space, is to calculation, complex constraints and boundary conditions
make grid informaion subdivision for global 3D airspace are involved in it.
by the basis of the theory and technology of spatial UAV operational space digitization technology and
information subdivision organization[5] . Specifically, its comprehensive application with related information
spatial information subdivision techniques such as grid will bring disruptive changes to the flight control, mission
encoding digitizing and the technique that enable the planning, and airspace management of UAVs, and realize
grid attribute to be calculable are used to associate the the transformation of UAV operation mode from the
physical airspace with the digital grid such that a digitized traditional control mode to the data-driven mode. Such
model for UAV operation space can be constructed, which transformation can be reflected in two aspects:
unifies the static and dynamic targets. This digitized 1) The precise digitized description of the spatial-
model provides digitized representation of grid encoding temporal relationship between a specific UAV and its
for UAV operation space. It realizes lossless digital surrounding environments or other UAVs, will enable
expression, accurate and concise representation, and the UAV to perceive its surroundings effectively and to
precise positioning of UAVs operating space. Ultimately, achieve efficient information interaction with other UAVs.
the low-altitude communal route for UAVs will be And it can provide UAVs accurate digital space support
constructed by integrating the obtained spatial grid to realizeing obstacle/collision avoidance and coordinated
information with navigation and positioning information flight.
and remote sensing information. 2) The accurately digitized layered and partitioned
The development of digitization technology for UAV planning for UAV operating space, will help optimize
operating space mainly includes the following three the allocation of airspace resource, and facilitate the
aspects, each of which relates to the UAV neighborhood transformation of airspace management. By this way,
location calculation technology corresponding to different under the premise of safety, the utilization of airspace
operation environment and practical purpose. resources can be maximized, which will provide digitized
The first aspect, aims at the case of a single UAV technical means for numerous applications such as the
in a relatively static environment such as mountains and route planning, flight management, mission scheduling,
rivers, forest vegetation, and buildings and streets. The and airspace supervision of UAVs.
corresponding UAV neighborhood location calculation In layman’s terms, the significance of operating
technology can be used for route planning and 3D space digitization for UAVs applications is equivalent to
environment modeling for UAVs. It is a kind of computing the importance of highways for automotive applications.
technique with simplified modeling , in the scene of which Realizing the digitization of operating space for UAVs
only a single UAV is the moving target while others are is equivalent to regulating the UAV flight airspace into
all set as the operation environment of the UAV. several layers of flight routes. In this manner, a set of
The second aspect, aims at the case of multiple airspace management modes and operation mechanisms
UAVs in a dynamic environment. The corresponding can be established accordingly. This practice will greatly
UAV neighborhood location calculation technology can be improve the efficiency of airspace resource allocation.
used for the fields of airspace management and control, Hence, the digitization of operating space will become one
collision detection and protection, and target recognition of the important infrastructures for the development of
and analysis, etc. In the scene, in addition to the the UAV industry.
UAVs and relatively static environments, there are other 3. Intelligentization of flight platforms
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Review on the Technological Development and Application of UAV Systems 203

The UAV flight platform includes multiple vehicle Center of Tsinghua University developed the world’s first
models, such as fixed-wing UAVs, rotary wing UAVs, heterogeneous fusion brain chip, known as “Tianjic”[9] .
parasol UAVs, flapping-wing UAVs, and compound- Based on this chip, the brain-like control systems
wing UAVs. Currently, four major characteristics are developed can control a bicycle to realize multiple
revealed in the development of the UAV flight platform. functions such as dynamic perception, automatic obstacle
First, the platform’s type of application is developing avoidance, speech comprehension, and independent
towards diversified directions including High altitude long decision-making. This technology can also be used to
endurance (HALE), medium-low-altitude multi-purpose, improve the intelligent level of the UAV flight platform.
and mini-micro UAVs with special applications. The 2) The intelligentization of multi-aircraft coordi-
diversified development of the UAV is an important nation, is to develop intelligent cooperative command
feature that distinguishes the UAV from the manned and control, cooperative situational awareness generation
aircraft. In particular, the UAV will enter the flying and evaluation, collaborative path planning, collaborative
world of birds and insects, where the flapping-wing UAVs semantic interaction and other technologies, aiming at the
will become an important research direction. Second, the application of the UAV swarm. These technologies, by
flight control and navigation technology is developing integrating advanced algorithms (e.g., swarm intelligent
towards the direction of autonomous navigation and algorithm, group optimal algorithms), based on biological
control[6] . Third, the energy and power technologies are mechanisms (e.g., the emergence of a smart entity
developing towards new concepts, new mechanisms, and among a stupid group, the self-adaptive behavior in a
high performance. Finally, the mission payload technol- swarm), will improve the UAV swarm’s capabilities of self-
ogy is developing towards the direction of multi-domain organization, self-collaboration and self-evolution. This
in-depth application. The rapid development and deeply will help realize the intelligentized coordination of each
integrated application of IT such as AI in the field of UAV platform’s state, path planning, and task execution
UAVs, will bring about changes in technology integration within the UAV swarm, as well as the intelligentized
and fusion methods among multiple technology domains collaborative interaction between UAV systems and
such as the flight platform manufacturing, flight control manned aircraft systems.
and navigation, energy and power, and mission payloads
3) The intelligentization of mission autonomy is
of UAVs. These changes will constantly improve the
designed to achieve intelligent perception and high
intelligent level of UAVs in multiple aspects including
autonomy for the UAV system via the deep integration
environmental awareness, flight control and navigation,
and application of pattern recognition (for speech,
mission planning, and application services, etc. Therefore,
text, and image), neural networks, autonomous control,
the intelligentization of the UAV flight platform will
artificial intelligence, advanced computing, big data,
become the most significant developing trend.
and other technologies in the field of UAV systems.
The intelligentization of the UAV flight platform is The strong autonomy will improve the capability of the
mainly reflected by three levels, i.e. intelligentization flight platform to act on its own during the tasks in a
for single UAV flight, multi-aircraft collaboration, and complex environment based on its own knowledge and
mission autonomy, respectively[7] . understanding of tasks and environments. This feature
1) The intelligentization for a single UAV flight also reduces the human workload in the loop, optimizes
is to develop a series of intelligent technologies (e.g., the division of labor between human and machine tasks,
intelligent environment perception and evasion, intelli- and realizes the efficient and intelligent execution of
gent path planning, intelligent autonomous control[8] , various tasks by the UAV itself.
intelligent airspace integration) and a series of intelligent From the perspective of a hierarchical relationship,
functions (e.g., intelligent environment perception and the intelligentization of a single UAV flight, multi-
evasion, path planning, robust control, autonomous aircraft coordination, and autonomy operation of the
decision-making, semantic interaction), hereby enable the tasks are the fundamental, the path, and the long-
UAV to achieve sensing the surrounding environment, term target for the UAV system, respectively. From
avoiding obstacles, independently planning the flight the perspective of the technical paths taken to realize
path according to the mission requirements, performing flight platform intelligentization, it is difficult to achieve
flexible maneuvering and fault-tolerant flight, in a highly advanced intelligence by relying only on the limited
dynamic, real-time, and opaque mission environment, perception, computing and storage resources on the
and using human language, words, and minds to realize flight platform. Instead, the intelligent flight platform
human-computer communication. can only be achieved by also taking advantage of the
For example, in August 2019, Nature reported that infrastructures used for the information transmission
Shi Luping et al. at the Brain Computing Research networking, operation space digitizing, etc., and flexibly
 20755597, 2020, 2, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/cje.2019.12.006 by Bangladesh Hinari NPL, Wiley Online Library on [06/07/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
204 Chinese Journal of Electronics 2020

utilizing the wide area perception, computing and storage by simulating the bee[10,11] . Their product is the lightest
resources in the network environment, as well as the vehicle built ever with major breakthroughs in energy,
computing and storage resources on the flight platform. gear ratios, actuators, wings, and other aspects. RoboBee
The intelligentization technology of the flight weighs only 259mg and its miniature solar cell weighs
platform will greatly enhance the multiple capabilities of approximately 10mg. As long as there is a sufficient
UAVs including the intelligent perception and cognition, intensity light source, it can fly continuously.
intelligent planning and control, intelligent analysis
and processing and deep learning, and multi-platform
III. Application Prospects of UAV
distributed intelligent collaboration. Intelligentized UAV Systems
flight platform can perceive complex environmental The application of the UAV system is not merely
information intelligently under dynamic conditions during a paradigm in aerial transportation. Instead, it exhibits
tasks and at the same time utilize the big data, cloud more important and broader application prospects in
computing, and edge computing technologies in the many other fields including agriculture, forestry, animal
network environment to realize situational intelligence husbandry, industry, service industry, and military field.
fusion and cognition. In this way, the UAV can These applications will give rise to “UAV+” production
automatically adjust and select the action modes, mode, service format, and combat mode, all of which will
optimize flight paths, and perform tasks autonomously have profound impacts on the development of the first,
according to the task requirements. Using the integrated second and third industries as well as the evolution in the
flight control architecture and algorithm technology can form of war.
realize networked and distributed cooperative flight as 1. Promoting new production mode
well as resolve potential flight conflict for the UAV swarm.
The rapid development and wide application of UAV
Even if a single node is lost or disabled in the UAV swarm,
system technology will provide an important driving
the self-organizing characteristic of the UAV swarm can
force to promote the quality transformation of economic
be adjusted adaptively according to the task requirements
development.
and environmental changes. This feature provides the
1) The development of UAV systems’ manufacturing
self-healing capability for the UAV swarm system which
industry and the application of UAV systems on
enhances the flexibility and survivability of the UAV
production lines will promote industrial upgrading. The
swarm during mission.
development and production of UAV systems will promote
Meanwhile, it is quite clear that the development of the deep integration of multiple technologies, such as
artificial intelligence is still in its infancy. In order to reach the Internet of things, big data, artificial intelligence,
real artificial intelligence, further efforts should be made. and mobile terminals in the post-information era. These
Realizing the intelligentization of UAV flight platform will technologies’ integration will become a new growth point
be a very challenging topic and also a long-term goal to in the fields of innovation leading, sharing economy,
be pursued during the technological development of UAV and middle and high-end supply chain. Accelerating the
systems. development of manufacturing industry for advanced
The three aforementioned aspects do not represent UAV systems will facilitate the innovation of cutting-
all the perspectives on the technological development edge technology applications (e.g., aerospace manufac-
trend of UAV systems. With the continuous break- turing, artificial intelligence, information networks, new
through and deep integration of related technologies materials) and promote the transformation of intelligent
such as manufacturing materials and processes, energy manufacturing toward the mid-to-high-end value chain.
and power, sensors, control algorithms, etc., the Furthermore, as UAVs have the advantage of moving in
technology of the UAV system will continue developing 3D space, the UAV can also be applied to industrial
towards a more diversified direction. For example, in production lines with the further improvement of its 3D
July 2016, BAE Inc. announced its UAV production positioning accuracy. Compared with the production line
technology developed in collaboration with the University made up of ordinary robots, the production line consisting
of Glasgow. Their technology, utilizing the “Chemputer” of UAVs has more flexible motion characteristics and
to perform advanced chemical processing at the molecular positive significance for optimizing the configuration and
level, can achieve rapid “growth” of UAVs and their process in production line.
complex circuitry through 3D-printing technology. This 2) The UAV will become an important logistics
manufacturing technology enables the production of small or passenger transport tool in the air transportation
UAVs in a short period of time. In June 2019, Nature industry. This trend has been reflected in a number of
reported that Jafferis N. T. et al. at the Micro Robot Lab aspects. First, remarkable progress has been made in
of Harvard University produced a flying robot “RoboBee”, the field of logistics transportation using UAVs. Since
 20755597, 2020, 2, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/cje.2019.12.006 by Bangladesh Hinari NPL, Wiley Online Library on [06/07/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Review on the Technological Development and Application of UAV Systems 205

2013, major logistics companies such as Amazon, UPS video cameras, photo cameras, and other remote sensing
Express, Matternet, DHL Group, SF Express, Taobao, devices, the UAV can then perform flight operations
and Jingdong Group have all started testing the delivery to collect and transmit real-time remote sensing data
business using UAVs. UAVs can not only deliver small along oil and gas pipelines, power lines, rivers and
parcels, but also contribute substantially to the logistics lakes, etc. Meanwhile, the monitors can perform analysis,
of the feeder line. In addition, UAVs can transport processing, and manipulation of the remote sensing
goods during the idle time of civil aviation route at night data on the computer simultaneously. Such electronic,
and therefore improve the utilization rate of the route. informatized, and intelligent inspection activities will
Second, new modes of passenger traffic by UAVs have greatly improve the work efficiency and emergency
also emerged nowadays. Government agencies such as the response capability.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 2. Effects on social services and lifestyles
are working with the industry to develop urban air traffic
UAV systems can provide a variety of social
systems. Airbus and Uber, being at the forefront in the
management and consumer services, all of which will have
development of urban UAV traffic services, are already
a huge impact on social management services and people’s
testing their prototypes[12] . One day in the future, UAVs
lifestyles.
will serve as air taxis in densely populated areas (from
small towns to big cities) to provide autonomous air 1) “UAV+” social management service will play an
transportation on demand in crowded and blocked areas increasingly important role. The UAV exhibits distinctive
or from rural areas to cities. These UAVs will be able to advantages in traffic management, urban management,
transport passengers quickly and safely. emergency rescue and other service applications due to
its good maneuverability, strong timeliness, and wide
3) UAVs will play important roles in agriculture, service range. For example, in July 2016, Shenzhen
forestry and animal husbandry and promote the modern- Public Security Traffic Police Bureau established the first
ization of these fields. The application of UAVs in these drone squadron in China’s public security traffic-control
fields can be categorized into the following three aspects. system. UAVs have been widely used in the field of traffic
First, UAVs can be used to realize accurate monitoring management to resolve the difficulty of collecting evidence
in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry fields. for traffic violations in the absence of surveillance camera
In addition, they can be used to provide fertilization, or during traffic jam. Examples of some traffic violations
pesticide, sowing, green pest control, and green disease include driving on the solid line, occupying emergency
protection to the farmlands. These activities can help lane, and speeding. In addition, UAVs can also perform
protect the environment and improve the utilization traffic flow monitoring in key areas and cooperate with
rate of the agriculture resources. As a consequence, traffic police command to provide traffic guidance, aerial
the use of UAVs will become an important mean for search, aerial call, and aerial delivery of rescue supplies.
developing intelligent and green agriculture, forestry In these cases, UAVs become important assistance for the
and animal husbandry. Second, UAVs can be used to traffic management departments. As another example,
perform mechanized farming activities with a number Changchun City established an urban management and
of significant advantages such as high speed and high law enforcement drone squadron in May 2018. This drone
precision. This type of application can effectively improve squadron helped resolve the evidence collection challenges
the production efficiency and reduce the labor demand for illegal high-level construction and reduced the blind
of agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. Third, spots in urban management. These functions greatly
UAVs can be used to perform farming activities from improved the efficiency and refinement level of urban
the air which will effectively improve the cultivation management. In terms of emergency rescue service, a
efficiency of farmland. Using traditional ground-moving report issued by Shenzhen Dajiang Innovation Technology
agricultural machinery can yield a seedling compaction Co., Ltd. stated that drone systems have saved 124 lives in
rate of around 10%. In addition, the cultivation activity the past two years. These UAVs have found and rescued
is greatly affected by terrain and soil conditions. On the dying swimmers in Australia and Brazil, coma in cold
contrary, using UAVs to perform farming activities will weather in the UK and the US, and lost tourists stranded
not cause any compaction to the seedling. Furthermore, in the wild, rivers and mountains. In the medical delivery
the air-based cultivation activities are more convenient tests performed in Nevada, USA, drone systems have been
and less affected by the terrain and soil conditions. widely used for emergency management such that the
4) UAVs can be used in the field of remote sensing time taken to transport medicines, supplies, and blood
detection for various applications such as oil and gas to remote locations were reduced from few hours to a few
pipeline inspection, power inspection, and environmental minutes[12] .
survey. After being equipped with high-definition digital 2) “UAV+” consumer services will become more
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206 Chinese Journal of Electronics 2020

diverse. Aerial photographing by UAVs can be used of military tasks such as photographic reconnaissance,
for film and television production, television programs leaflets distribution, and air bait for defense fire in
broadcast, and wedding services, etc. For example, the US the Vietnam War in the 1960s and the Arab–Israeli
technology company Intel Corporation has flown multiple conflict in the 1970s. Since the 1990s, UAVs have been
drones at night to record music videos for Lady Gaga[12] . widely used in wars (conflicts) such as the Gulf War,
CNN has also flown drones over crowds to capture the Kosovo War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War,
news events from an aerial perspective[12] . In addition, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Many different high-end
with the deep integration of UAVs with Virtual reality UAVs emerged in these conflicts, including Predators,
(VR)/Augmented reality (AR) technologies, “UAV+VR Hunters, Pioneers, Global Hawks, and Reapers. These
and AR” gaming products can be developed in a advanced UAVs are capable of executing various military
combined virtual and real environment, based on the real tasks, such as reconnaissance, firepower engagement,
countryside view with green mountains and clean water. electronic countermeasures, communication support, and
This gaming development strategy will revolutionize the transportation services. The use of UAVs to perform
traditional game industry and bring more passionate military missions will not only reduce the risk of
gaming experience. casualties, but also cost less than using a manned aircraft.
3) “UAV+” customized service will become available Therefore, the application of UAV systems in the military
to thousands of households. With the continuous inno- field will receive increasing attention and create a variety
vation and development of intelligent UAV technology, of novel military forces.
increasing number of household drones will gradually 2) UAV systems will facilitate the expansion of
take over the market and provide customized services for combat space. The wide application of UAVs in the
ordinary families. Intelligent household drones can form military field will meet the needs of military mission under
family service groups through division of labor and adjust special and extreme conditions, such as high altitude, high
their working modes according to different gestures or speed, high risk, extreme temperatures, and narrow space.
languages. This feature enables them to provide services The use of UAVs in these extreme military environments
beyond what can be offered by the combination of will constantly improve the performance of multiple
smart phone and robots. Some example services include combat factors (e.g., reconnaissance, firepower, electronic
delivering coffee, lighting cigarettes, playing music, and countermeasures, communication support, transportation
other human-friendly services that meet the individual services) while reducing the risk of combat casualties and
needs of family members. Intelligent UAVs can also work the threshold of military conflict. As a consequence, UAV
as sports companions to record, shoot, and follow personal systems will become an important supporting element for
activities while interacting with the outside world. They developing new military forces and combat capabilities.
can be used in a number of flexible ways during jogging, For example, the X-37B UAV made by the US exhibits
hiking, sailing, swimming, cycling, skiing, rafting, and many distinctive features such as being able to travel
self-driving to make these sports activities more efficient, between earth and low-earth orbit, a long-term orbit,
safer, and more interesting. and a rapid response. These features grant X-37B the
3. Bringing profound changes in the military potential for use in multiple military application such
field as reconnaissance and early warning, weapon launch,
As pointed out by Engels, once technological long-distance transport, anti-satellite warfare, and on-
advances are ready to be used for military purposes orbit service. Once such equipment systems are deployed
and have been used for military purposes, they are in real warfare, they will greatly enhance the free and
almost forcibly and often violate the commander’s will mobile combat capability of the US military in the global
to change or even revolutionize the way of warfare. The commons and accelerate the evolution of warfare forms.
same holds for the technological advances in the UAV, 3) The use of UAVs in combat will become
which will inevitably bring profound changes in the way more flexible and changeable. Because of impacts from
of warfare. The “unmanned” feature will become an the complex battlefield environments (e.g., terrain,
important characteristic of weaponry development and geomorphology, climate) and the limitations from the
their use in practical operation. performance of the equipment themselves, it is often
1) The increasingly diverse application of UAVs difficult for a single UAV platform to accomplish the
in military missions. Since the birth of the world’s mission. Therefore, one important direction for UAV
first UAV in the UK in 1917, a series of developing system development in future combat is to fully exploit
process have been experienced by UAVs including target the advantage of coordinated operation of different
drone, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, and multi- platforms and systems by establishing networks between
purpose drones[1] . These UAVs have performed a variety different UAVs; UAVs and manned aircraft systems; and
 20755597, 2020, 2, Downloaded from https://ietresearch.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/cje.2019.12.006 by Bangladesh Hinari NPL, Wiley Online Library on [06/07/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Review on the Technological Development and Application of UAV Systems 207

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He, Feng Chen, Ning Deng, Si Wu, Yu Wang, Yujie Wu,
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[12] Brian Wynne, “The sky is the limit: What’s ahead for the
the technological advances in UAV systems will eventually
drone industry in the U.S.”, International Conference on
reach the inflection point in its developing history. During Intelligent Unmanned System, CIE, Xi’an, China, 2018.
this process, the performance of the aircraft will keep
improving accompanied by the continuous expansion of
FAN Bangkui is an academician
their functions. In summary, UAV systems will transform
of CAE, specializes on systematic design
from a beautiful vision to practical applications at a large and key technologies of UAS.
scale. The use of UAV systems will become a part of our (Email: [email protected])
everyday life and accessible to thousands of households.
As we embrace a brilliant future of unmanned aircraft,
the sky will become a more crowded and ordered stage
filled with these mobile agents.
LI Yun (corresponding author)
References is a senior engineer, specializes on strategic
study of UAS.
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