A Detailed Survey and Future Directions of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with Potential Applications

Abstract

Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, have gained widespread interest in civilian and military applications, which has led to the development of novel UAVs that can perform various operations. UAVs are aircraft that can fly without the need of a human pilot onboard, meaning they can fly either autonomously or be remotely piloted. They can be equipped with multiple sensors, including cameras, inertial measurement units (IMUs), LiDAR, and GPS, to collect and transmit data in real time. Due to the demand for UAVs in various applications such as precision agriculture, search and rescue, wireless communications, and surveillance, several types of UAVs have been invented with different specifications for their size, weight, range and endurance, engine type, and configuration. Because of this variety, the design process and analysis are based on the type of UAV, with the availability of several control techniques that could be used to improve the flight of the UAV in order to avoid obstacles and potential collisions, as well as find the shortest path to save the battery life with the support of optimization techniques. However, UAVs face several challenges in order to fly smoothly, including collision avoidance, battery life, and intruders. This review paper presents UAVs’ classification, control applications, and future directions in industry and research interest. For the design process, fabrication, and analysis, various control approaches are discussed in detail. Furthermore, the challenges for UAVs, including battery charging, collision avoidance, and security, are also presented and discussed.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Communications for Civil Applications: A Review

“…The larger rotor on the top is used for lift while the smaller one at the tail is used for control [121]. Compared to multi-rotor systems, Single rotor drones have higher endurance with longer flights and can carry heavier payloads to perform a variety of tasks [122], and they are often powered by gas engines [123]. Much like the multirotor UAVs, single rotor drones are also suitable for aerial photography [124] in addition to spraying agricultural crops [121], [125].…”

“…The authors state that there are UAVs over the Short Range category, but they are rarely used for civil applications. According to [123], UAVs can be classified as: Very low cost close-range (5km), Close-range (50km), Short-range (150km), Mid-range (650km), and Endurance (300km) UAVs. In terms of operation, UAVs are classified mostly into two categories.…”

A Fast-Tracking-Particle-Inspired Flow-Aided Control Approach for Air Vehicles in Turbulent Flow

“…The point-mass assumption is effective in practice when the vehicle geometry can be ignored in obstacle avoidance problems, and the vehicle size is much smaller than the vortex length scale, or . Typically, the size of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) spans from around 15 cm to 2 m, and the length scale of the energetic turbulent eddies in the atmosphere is about 100 m [ 62 , 78 , 79 ]. Furthermore, as illustrated in Figure 2 , the vehicle propelled by a thrust force must traverse a cellular-flow wind field with vortex length scale, , and time scale, .…”

A Reasonable Alternative System for Searching UAVs in the Local Area

“…The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is currently widespread. We do not mean only their primary use for commercial or leisure activities; instead, we increasingly encounter unmanned technology in strategic applications, such as search and rescue humanitarian or military use [1][2][3][4]. Regardless of the current use of the UAV, the loss of such equipment would represent significant financial damage for the owner (operator).…”