Introduction to unmanned systems – unmanned ground, air, and water vehicles

As the world is going through innovations and new developments, technology has risen and things have scaled down to a major extent. Any new technology that arises comes from security and defense requirements and is later integrated into the civil world, and unmanned technology is no different.

Manned systems were too big for intelligence gathering and too risky to be used in gathering intelligence from the enemy. Also, a huge price of man and machine was paid if engaged in combat or ambush. To avoid this situation, unmanned technology was born to cater to this purpose on land, air, and sea, now known as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), UAVs, and unmanned water vehicles (UWVs), respectively.

Various unmanned vehicles

UAVs have evolved over time and have taken shape, as we are seeing with day-to-day vehicles. As we have cars and trucks for land, submarines and ships for the sea, and airplanes for the air, similarly, we have unmanned systems for all three domains – land, water, and air – described as follows:

• UWVs: UWVs are uncrewed submarines that are used to travel deep inside the water. They travel up to long ranges deep inside water and are operated by ground crews from far away. These unmanned submarines are autonomously driven water vehicles that travel on a predefined path at a predefined depth and return after completing missions.

  These are used for underwater surveillance using RGB cameras or doing bathymetric surveys using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). The same is being used in defense for reconnaissance and monitoring sea waters.

• UGVs: UGVs are similar to UWVs, with the difference that these vehicles travel on the earth’s surface rather than in air and water. These are operated with the crew members sitting far from the base stations. These are operated in manual and autonomous modes on a predefined path, speed, and route and come back to their original place.
• UAVs: UAVs are vehicles that fly in the air without onboard crews and with the help of onboard sophisticated sensor systems. These unmanned systems are controlled by ground-based controlled systems crews controlled by long-range antennas. These systems are used for civil and military applications such as crowd monitoring, aerial surveys, and agriculture. We will understand more about these systems in the coming chapters.

History and evolution of drones

The history of UAVs, or drones, is quite interesting. The idea of pilotless flying machines dates back to the early 1900s when humans began imagining the chances of an unmanned flight. In their early days, drones were primarily used for military purposes, such as reconnaissance and surveillance, and they proved valuable in situations where sending human pilots was risky.

As development went through advanced phases, drones became smaller and more sophisticated, and various new applications evolved. The evolution of UAVs rose dramatically in the 2000s with the introduction of consumer drones, whose applications were beyond military use. Suddenly, drones became popular among hobbyists, photographers, and filmmakers, offering a new perspective from the sky.

In recent years, drones have been introduced to various other applications as well, where they are now employed in diverse fields, including agriculture for crop monitoring, search and rescue operations, environmental monitoring, and even delivery services. The history of UAVs reflects a journey from military-focused beginnings to becoming versatile tools with widespread civilian applications, showcasing the remarkable evolution of unmanned aerial technology.

Need for an unmanned system

As the era advances, the demand for different datasets and intelligence is growing. Earlier, due to non-availability of the technology, such things were done with the help of man and machines. Now, as technology is rising, drones can reach where man and machine cannot via the ground with less cost and less effort.

The following are key reasons why UAVs have become a key requirement over manned aircraft:

• Easy reach: UAVs have reached remote areas that man or ground vehicles failed to reach easily with less cost and effort.
• Easy transportation: Unmanned systems are highly scalable and available in all shapes and sizes for a variety of work as compared to manned aircraft. Due to their extremely small shape and size, they can be easily transportable in a small form factor, which makes them smaller, simpler, and smarter.
• Less power consumption and easy maintenance: Being small and rough, these devices consume less power, which makes them more economical.
• Economical: Drones prove to be an economical solution for many aerial applications such as surveys and surveillance as compared to other applications.

What are unmanned aerial systems?

An unmanned aerial system (UAS) is an uncrewed aerial platform being operated by an avionics system over a wireless network by a remote crew. It comes in all weights, sizes, and performances. It comes with different types of vehicles that are used for different types of applications. UAVs are also known as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS). In the next section, we will understand the various applications for which UASs are used.

A few of the applications of UAVs in current scenarios include the following:

• Civilian uses of drones:
  • Aerial photography: The use of drones has enabled filmmakers and cinematographers to capture high-quality video from different angles and heights, which was once very difficult and expensive. We can see the use of drones for videography in functions and weddings due to their small size, easy handling, and cost efficiency.
  • Asset inspection: Earlier, the inspection of huge assets such as windmills, pipelines, power transmission lines, bridges, and the like was difficult as the reach of humans was limited and the execution of tasks was costly and time-consuming. After the evolution of drones and their capacity to carry payloads such as Lidar and cameras, the inspection of these assets has become easy and cost-efficient due to the small size of the drones and their reach to places humans can’t. This helps to inspect assets closely and take measures in a timely manner.
  • Wildlife conservation: Drones help to keep an eye on wildlife spread across a larger area within minutes. They give a real-time video feed to the operator of the landmass and aid monitoring in the area. This saves a lot of time and effort compared to when people have to physically monitor the area. Drones also can issue warnings, take a closer look at areas of wild animals, and report if any critical incident has taken place.
  • Agriculture surveys: Special multispectral and hyperspectral camera-equipped drones help to take geotagged imagery of crop fields. These images are later used by software to extract the chemical composition of leaves and provide data about the lack of critical minerals in the plants. The data can be used and analyzed to predict crop health at a particular geolocation and take protective measures against it.
  • Aerial surveys: Drones equipped with high-resolution cameras take geotagged imagery of landmass from the air, and later, these images are used to make high-quality accurate maps to understand the earth’s surface. Drones have made this task easy and time efficient due to their small size and require less human effort.
  • Mosquito repellent: Heavy lift drones are also used to spray mosquito repellent in areas that require efficient mosquito control. Since it’s difficult for humans to spray these insecticides evenly across areas where reach is impossible, drones have made this efficient and cost-effective.
  • Cargo drones: Nowadays, drones are also used in the delivery of goods, which is termed aerial deliveries. Major companies are looking at this as the future of deliveries. Use cases for delivering heavy cargo across remote areas are also being developed.
• Defense use cases of drones:
  • Crowd monitoring: Drones equipped with speakers and cameras have played a pivotal role in crowd monitoring. A drone gives a live feed of the situation, and a person can instruct the crowd with the help of speakers and investigate the situation with the help of a camera without actually going there.
  • Surveillance: Drones equipped with day-night cameras help defense forces keep an eye on critical assets during the day and night. These cameras are equipped with tracking capabilities and lasers to accurately get the geolocation of the target. This helps forces keep a large area under surveillance without any human intervention.
  • Aerial warfare: As we are seeing in the world, drones have become crucial equipment in warfare. This helps to be more lethal without risking human life.
  • Radio relaying: Drones are also used as radio signal boosters and repeaters in remote areas where communication is the key tool. Such drones are used in mountain ranges where line of sight (LOS) is not possible, and a tethered drone is used as a tower for amplifying signals and establishing communications.

The aforementioned are some use cases where drone technology is being used to help reduce the cost and risk of manpower and also reduce the time taken for project completion. We are seeing that different types of drones are being built and used to cater to different application needs. As a fighter plane cannot work as a passenger plane and vice versa, one type of drone does not fit into all applications, hence any system is designed completely from scratch as per the requirements/application/purpose, and so on.