Autonomy in UAV Civilian Applications

Abstract

The multiple advantages of the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platforms in combination with the recent research advancements in the field and the reduction of production cost for such platforms have caused an increasing interest for their use in multiple civilian applications. As the number of UAV operations in a common airspace increases, Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) plays a crucial role in accommodating flights in a safe and systematic manner. This work looks into six categories of those applications and the relevant guidance and decision-making algorithms and methodologies to enable autonomy in their execution, as well as traffic management systems required to support them.