Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles

Abstract

In recent decades, Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) became a popular household name that caught attention over the world. With its continued development, its advantages are increasingly outstanding whether for military or civilian use. Compared to the manned aircrafts, UAVs are cheap, efficient, convenient, reduce casualty rates in the modern war and achieve complex goals when combined with other equipments (e.g., sensors, scanners) in the civil fields. Therefore, many countries, especially the developed countries, are already engaged in the research and development of UAVs. This chapter systematically introduces UAVs from the perspective of terminology and definitions, historical background, basics of unmanned aerial systems, GNSS in supporting UAVs, Environment applications of UAVs, and finally discusses its future challenges.