While many technical obstacles must still be overcome before unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can enter civil controlled airspace, government and industry organisations are actively engaged in establishing national and international regulations for their eventual introduction. The November 2006 conference of UVS Canada, the Canadian UAV association, held in Montebello, Quebec, heard presentations from ICAO, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Eurocontrol, joint government/industry specialist groups and other organisations on how the safe integration of UAVs could be achieved.
While there is much greater UAV activity in the US than elsewhere, there is a clear recognition within the worldwide civil aviation community that UAV activity is increasing rapidly, and that uniform standards should now be established. One financial industry forecast reported by Peter van Blyenburgh, of the Paris-based UVS International, predicted that the civil UAV market would reach EUR100 million (USD129.6 million) annually by 2010, increasing to EUR270 million after 2015.
Source and more info: janes
The U.S. government is pushing ahead with developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, for land border security with Canada.
Officials of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said last week they would work with the Federal Aviation Administration to impose flight restrictions around a North Dakota air base where the new UAV will be tested.
‘We are working with the FAA to get restrictions on the airspace (above Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D.) during certain time windows when we fly, typically at night,’ said Gen. Michael Kostelnik, head of air and marine operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency inside the Department of Homeland Security that flies the pilot-less aircraft, known by their military acronym UAV, for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
The UAV, a version of the military MQ9 Predator B equipped with special cameras and other sensors, and with the ability to stay in the air for up to 30 hours, will be able to monitor remote and inaccessible regions of the border with Canada, officials say.
Source and more info: monstersandcritics
MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is using the Draganflyer RC helicopter in their UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Swarm Health Management Project, which is focused on surveillance and monitoring of ground based objects or vehicles. The goal is continuous monitoring using multiple autonomous vehicles in swarms, with distributed intelligent computer control and minimal human supervision. The multi-vehicle testbed developed by MIT uses several Draganflyer four rotor electric RC helicopters and a computer tracking and positioning system to monitor and control multiple unmanned aerial vehicles. The components of the system communicate with each other through Ethernet connections.
Even though the vehicles used are unmanned, each one would normally require its own ground based pilot, operating it by remote control. What MIT’s system does is place multiple UAVs under computer control. This removes the need for constant human attention and piloting. Not just one, but multiple UAVs, can be directed with MIT’s system via a remote connection. A swarm of unmanned aerial vehicles could be used to monitor a convoy or keep watch over a border. This could be especially useful to the military. The use of multiple UAVs would allow constant aerial surveillance, with new vehicles launched to take the place of ones in need of recharging or those that have been damaged.
Source and more info: shephard
Finmeccanica subsidiary Galileo Avionica is to unveil an electrically powered vertical take off and landing (VTOL) UAV at this month’s IDEX exhibition in Abu Dhabi.
Designated ASIO, the system is being developed in conjunction with the Rome-based Unmanned Technologies Research Institute (UTRI). Galileo Avionica says that the UAV has fully autonomous capabilities and has been developed to support manoeuvre, urban and special operations roles.
Source and more info: flightglobal
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly being developed and deployed, and the FAA on Tuesday published a UAV policy to outline how these aircraft can be used in the National Airspace System. The rules vary depending if the UAV is operated as a public aircraft (operated by the government), a civil aircraft or a model. Public aircraft operate under individual Certificates of Waiver or Authorization (COAs), which are issued after an FAA review of the program and its safety protocols. More than 50 COAs have been granted in the last two years, and a record number are expected for 2007. Civil aircraft must operate under experimental airworthiness certificates. Guidelines for operation of model aircraft are found in FAA Advisory Circular 91-57. Such aircraft may only be used for sport, and not for commercial or business purposes, the FAA notes. More policy statements can be expected as the technology and its applications continue to develop.
Source and more info: avweb
Taoyuan County-based Yuan Ze University has recently achieved a breakthrough in the development of technologies for building unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for commercial use, the director of a UAV development project at the university said.
Wu Chang-huei, an associate professor at Yuan Ze University’s department of mechanical engineering, indicated that through the UAV computer system his team has developed, an unmanned vehicle can be made to automatically carry out various surveillance missions simply by punching in the coordinates of the appointed targets.
Wu noted that unmanned aircraft have been widely used to carry out military missions for many years, but it has only been in recent years that such vehicles have started to be developed for civilian uses.
In 2006, the Environmental Protection Administration contracted Yuan Ze to develop a commercial UAV system capable of performing automatic flight by following satellite navigation signals, he said.
With cameras, a UAV can also transfer images from the sky back to the control headquarters on the ground, Wu said, adding that the machine is useful for all kinds surveillance missions, including monitoring pollution at sea and the traffic situation on roads and highways. In addition, UAVs can be used for rescue missions in difficult to reach locations, such as mountainous regions or on the open seas.
Source and more info: chinapost
