Introduction

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly referred as drone in modern technical

term which is an aerial vehicle or aircraft without onboard human pilot and it is
controlled by means of radio communications with the help of controllers. The UAV
is capable of autonomous waypoint navigation using onboard GPS processing and
is under controlled by the human operator, autonomously by onboard computers or
by artificial intelligence

UAVs have been used for many centuries. The earliest record use was by Austrians
way back on 1849 which was used for loading explosives. The history of multirotor /
rotor system development is not known much in comparison to conventional aircraft
structures. As early as 1907 in France, guided by Charles Richet, the Breguet
Brothers built their first human carrying helicopter and they called it the Breguet-
Richet Gyroplane No. 1, which was a quadcopter as shown in Fig 1a. The first flight
attempt was undertaken between August and September of 1907. The witnesses
said they saw the quadcopter lifted 1.5 m into the air for a moment and landed soon
after. This failure was caused by the impractical design. Despite ended up a failure,
it might be the earliest attempt to build the multicopter. Etienne Oemichen, another
engineer, also began experimenting with rotating-wing designs in 1920. His first
model failed to lift from the ground. However, after some calculations and redesigns,
his second aircraft, the Oemichen No. 2 which is shown in Fig. 1b was flown. In 1921,
George De Bothezat and Ivan Jerome were hired to develop one for the US Army
Air Corps which is shown in Fig. 1c was designed to take a payload of three people
in addition to one pilot and was supposed to reach an altitude of one hundred meters,
but the result was that it only managed to lift five meters. Marc Adman Kaplan
Quadcopter design, Convertawings Model “A”, as shown in Fig. 1d, was first flown in
1956 and proved to be a great success. The one ton heavy quadcopter was able to
hover and manoeuvre with its two 90 horsepower engines. Controlling this
quadcopter did not require additional propellers perpendicular to the main rotors, but
was realized by varying the thrust of the main rotors instead. In 1957, the Army
contracted with Curtiss-Wright to develop VZ-7 as a prototype flying jeep, to carry
small amounts of men and machinery over rough terrain, as shown in Fig. 1e.
Curtiss-Wright produced two VZ-7 prototypes in 1958. The machines were proved to
be very easy to hover and manoeuvre.
 Fig. 1 History of Quadcopter Development

Advantages of UAV in comparison to conventional manned aircraft

• It is programmable such that the UAV does not exceed its limits. The on-board
computer uses the information given by the sensors and can calculate the limits
of the aircraft.
• It can tolerate wider environmental ranges, greater ranges of pressure,
temperature, and turbulence.
• UAVs are also able to operate in areas that would prove hostile to humans,
such as Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical (NBC) radiated areas.
• UAVs save weight as there is no pilot and no-pilot related equipment on-board.
• UAVs have lower operational costs. The reduction in weight and size allows the
vehicles to operate on far less power

Types of UAV

• Fixed wing
Fixed-wing UAVs, similar to migratory birds, fly at close arm length, reduce their
drift due to their design, and stand vertically in balance. Fixed-wing UAVs have
a great interest in research and development. Fixed-wing UAVs consist of
propeller, motor, main body, and wings. While the wings create the lifting force,
the propeller is rotated with the help of the motor to produce thrust power for
flight and then fixed-wing UAV takes off and starts the flight.
 Fig. 2 Fixed Wing UAV
• Rotary wing
Rotary-wing UAVs are capable of flying by balancing the force generated by
the rotors on them. Rotary-wing UAVs continue to be popular in the current
UAV market. They have the ability to follow the given trajectory, make vertical
take-off and landing, and hovering. Rotary-wing UAVs, which are named
according to the number of engines they have, have many varieties, including
tricopters, quadcopters, hexacopters, and octacopters.

Fig. 3 Rotary Wing UAV

• Flapping wing
Flapping-wing UAVs are an aircraft inspired by the flapping of birds and insects.
Because of the biological structure of insects and birds, flight dynamics are
more complex than other UAVs. Most of these types of vehicles are operated
manually and perform their forward flights successfully. In addition, it has the
potential for a wide range of applications with vertical take-off and
 hovering. Flapping-wing UAVs with low power consumption have low load-
carrying capacity and low durability.

Fig. 4 Flapping Wing UAV (Courtesy : Tamkang University)

Characteristics of UAV

The following are the significant characteristics of UAV which are to be considered
while designing for specific payload and mission requirments

▪ High Lift and Thrust

▪ Less Weight

▪ Good Flight Endurance

▪ More Payload

▪ Good Maneuverability

▪ Hovering Capability

▪ VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing)

Parts of Fixed Wing

Fig. 6 Parts of Fixed Wing

Parts of Flapping Wing

Fig. 7 Parts of Flapping Wing UAV

Parts of Rotary Wing

Fig. 8 Parts of Rotary Wing UAV

Ground Control Station (GCS)

It is the control center of the UAV. Mission planning, mission execution and data
manipulation can be performed and most importantly, UAV is operated/remotely
piloted from the control station. The control station can be mobile or stationary.
Choosing the equipment and control and monitor tools is very important for the crew
members. In planning and conducting flight paths, all entities operating UAS should
select and adhere to those tracks and altitudes that completely minimize the possibility
of UAV failing into congested areas in the event of electronic or material malfunction
that could lead to loss of control. Flight levels (FL) should be determined as a part of
route planning. Ground traffic management plans are required for all activities in or
around a roadway that may affect operating conditions of the roadway. UAVs are
especially sensitive to wind conditions while at altitude. When planning for recurring
missions or surveys, historical data should be part of scheduling. Weather patterns
and trends can, to a certain degree, be predicted from a weather analysis. Anenometer
should be considered a critical part of the control station equipment, which should
possess an instrument to measure wind speed.

The software used on certain flight controllers may have additional features which are
not available on others:

• Autonomous waypoint navigation allows to set GPS waypoints which the UAV
will follow autonomously
• Orbiting i.e. moving around a fixed GPS coordinate with the front of the UAV
always pointed towards the coordinate (useful for filming)
• Follow me feature can be GPS based (for example tracking the GPS
coordinates of a smartphone)

Fig. 9 Ground Control Station with UAV Mission

There are at least ten different ground control stations. On desktop there is Mission
Planner, APM Planner 2, MAVProxy, QGroundControl and UgCS. For
Tablet/Smartphone there is Tower (DroidPlanner 3), MAVPilot, AndroPilot and
SidePilot that can be used to communicate with ArduPilot (i.e. Copter, Plane, Rover,
AntennaTracker).

Communication

• Radio Control (RC): communication involves a hand-held RC transmitter and

RC receiver. A minimum four channels are associated with:
• Pitch (which translates to forward / backward motion)
• Elevation (closer to or farther away from the ground)
• Yaw (rotating clockwise or counter-clockwise)
• Roll (to strafe left and right)
• Arming or disarming the motors
• Gimbal controls (pan up or down, rotate clockwise or counterclockwise, zoom)
• Change flight modes (acrobatic mode, stable mode etc)
• Activate or deploy a payload, parachute, buzzer or other device

First person viewer flight (FPV), video transmitter power, frequencies,

connectors, antenna. It is the ability of the user of some technology to see from a
particular visual perspective other than one’s actual location, such as the
environment of a character in a UAV. First-person-view drone flying is the closest
thing to being a bird. The difference between being the pilot rather than passive
viewer is the direct connection between visual input and your manual control of the
quadcopter. It provides you with a true pilot’s eye view while flying your airplane or
copter. A video camera and transmitter are placed in your plane or copter and a
receiTBSDiscoveryver and video display are used on the ground. An OSD (On
Screen Display) can be connected to your flight controller to provide an aircraft
instrument overlay on your FPV monitor. The video display can be either an LCD
screen display or a head mounted display (video goggles). This system is smaller,
lighter and less expensive than you would think and can provide a wonderful true
pilot flying experience. All the FPV copters described on this page are small
providing increased agility, performance, pilot experience, survivability, and safety

Sensors

• Accelerometer: To measure acceleration of UAV from which velocity of UAV

is determined
 • Gyroscope: To measure the angular velocity of UAV from which attitude such
as roll, pitch and yaw angles are estimated

• Magnetometer or Compass: To identify the direction of UAV

• Barometer: To calculate the altitude of UAV by measuring atmospheric

pressure

Fig. 10 PCB Board with Various Sensors

Forces and Torques on Quadcopter

Fig. 11 Forces and Torques in Quadcopter

Manoeuvring of Quadcopter

Fig. 13 Manoeuvring of Quadcopter

Applications of UAV

Fig. 14 Various UAV Applications

UAVs in Agriculture

• Crop Monitoring and Management

• Field Mapping and Planning
• Crop Health Assessment
• Water Management
• Irrigation system monitoring
• Crop disease identification forecasting

Fig. 15 UAV in Agri Field

UAVs in Construction Industry

• Survey of building envelope

• Tracking stored materials
• Photogrammetry
• Contour maps
• 3D Building models
• Volumetric survey

Fig. 16 UAV in Construction Field

UAVs for Oil and Gas Pipeline Inspection

• Pipeline surveillance
• Physical damage and corrosion detection
• Pipeline leak detection
• Gas Flare Stack Inspections
• Oil Rig Inspections

Fig. 17 UAV in Oil and Gas Inspection

Other UAV Applications

▪ Power line cable inspection

▪ Telecom tower inspection and radiation measurement

▪ Environmental monitoring

▪ Exploration of mines

▪ Pesticide spraying and crop monitoring

▪ Water sampling and water quality analysis (in-situ and Lab)

▪ Infrastructure assessment (Bridges and Heritage Structures)

▪ Measurement of air quality

▪ Traffic monitoring and regulation

▪ Disaster missions

Fig. 18 Drone Scheme launched by Govt. of India for Women’s

UAV Market Trend in Various Sectors

Market Size in Billion

2030
Passenger

2025
2020
Logistic

2030
2025
2020
Public safety

2030
Sectors

2025
2020
Consumer

2030
2025
2020
Enterprises

2030
2025
2020
Defence

2030
2025
2020
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Fig. 19 Future Market Trend of UAVs in Various Sectors

Payloads of UAV

Payloads of UAV

Cameras Sensors Other Devices

• High Definition • LiDAR • Search light

• Multispectral • Air Quality • Fire extinguisher

• Hyper spectral • Water Quality • Package drop

• Thermal • Non-destructive • Microphone /Speakers

• 3D Oblique • Radar • Altimeter

Fig. 20 Dual IR and HD Fig. 21 Hyperspectral Imager

Camera
Fig. 22 Multispectral Imager Fig. 23 Thermal Imager

Fig. 24 LiDAR
Fig. 25 3D Oblique Camera

Fig. 26 Search Light Fig. 27 Wrench

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