Possibilities of nanotechnologies for unmanned autonomous vehicles

Abstract

The article deals with the impact of nanotechnology on military capabilities and operations in the specific context of unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAV). The results established that nanotechnology will be particularly important in enabling the development and successful deployment of UAVs and platforms in respect to: (a) Surveillance for indoor and outdoor urban terrain; specifically with regards to enhanced survivability due to increased material robustness, enhanced sensing systems both in terms of range and sensitivity as well as the potential for novel power generation and storage techniques and (b) Persistent surveillance of extended outdoor facilities; particularly with regards to the development of novel power generation and storage techniques. In addition, nanotechnology will provide novel data processing concepts which are orders of magnitude faster than is current state of the art, enabling enhanced levels of autonomous operation as would be necessary for such specific scenarios.