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UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

INTRODUCTION:

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) commonly known as “DRONES”. A drone is an aircraft, which can fly without a human pilot. UAVs are the components of the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Which also includes other components like a ground-based controller and a communication system to link the two. These systems include UAVs which are remote-controlled by human and autonomously controlled (with predefined route).

 Initially, these drones are developed for military applications, later there use is rapidly expanded to other fields like agricultural, commercial, surveillance, product deliveries, and photography.

EVOLUTION OF DRONES

  • In 1849, when Venice was fighting for its independence from Austria. Then Austria used an unmanned balloon loaded with explosives. Although balloons are not considered as UAVs in the present scenario.
  • Later In 1915, During the battle of Neuve Chapelle British military used aerial photography to capture about 1500 sky view of german trench fortification in the region.
  • During the 1st World War, the first pilotless radio-controlled aircraft was used by the US Army. In 1918 US Army experimented “Kettering Bug which was unmanned flying bomb aircraft that was never used in combat

  • During World War 2, the US army developed a first remotely controlled aircraft called “The Radioplane OQ2”. Which was developed by Reginald Denny and his partners? They have manufactured nearly 1500 drones for the Army during WW2.

  • During the 1930s, US Army experimenting on radio-controlled aircraft and in 1937 they created a “Curtiss N2C-2” drone. It was remotely controlled from another aircraft called TG-2.
  • During the war of Israel and Syrian, Israel used many UAVs and manned aircraft to defeat Israel forces. In 1986, an aircraft called “RQ2 Pioneer”, was created by the US and Israel. Which was a medium-sized reconnaissance aircraft?
  • In 2000 the U.S developed a UAV called “Predator Drone” in Afghanistan to hunt Osama Bin Laden.

 

TYPES OF DRONES:

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES can be classified on different basis like:
  1. Types of drones based on aerial platforms:
  2. MULTI ROTOR DRONES
These are the most common type of drones which used for most applications like aerial photography, aerial cinematography, etc. These can easily be manufactured and they are cheaper compared to other drones.
 Multi drones are further classified based upon the number of rotors. They are
  1. TRICOPTER: Which has 3 rotors
  2. QUADCOPTER: Which has 4 rotors.
  3. HEXACOPTER: Which has 6 rotors.
  4. OCTOCOPTER: Which has 8 rotors.

                                                                               

As per the aerodynamics, an increase in the no of rotors increases the spin of an object. So quadcopters are more stablethanthe octocopters.
 The main drawback of the Multi-Rotor Drone is it’s low flying time. Most of the multirotor drones have the capability of 20 to 30 min of flying time
  • SINGLE ROTOR DRONES
Single rotor drones are similar in design to the helicopter. They have only one rotor on top and one small rotor at the tail to control heading.
Single rotor drones have more efficiency than multi-rotor drones. As per the aerodynamic, single rotor drones are more stable than multi-rotor drones. These drones have more flying time and can hover with a heavy load.
They can be powered with a gas motor for longer endurance.
Main drawbacks of single rotor drones:
  • They are more expensive.
    • Difficult to control.
    • Dangerous because of the heavy spinning blade.
These are mostly used in the LIDAR laser scan 

FIXED WING DRONES

A Fixed Wing Drone uses a rigid wing like an airplane to provide the lift rather than rotors which provide vertical lift.So these drones use energy during glide only but not to hold themselves up in the air.
These drones can stay in the air for 16 hours or more if they use gas engines as their power source.
Advantages of fixed-wing drones are
  • They can cover greater distances compared to the other two types of drones.
    • Fixed-wing drones can continue flying and land safely without power.
    • The fixed-wing drone is more stable than other drones.
The drawback of fixed-wing drones are
  • These drones are more costly than multi-rotor drones.
    • These drones can’t hover at one place like MRD and SRD. So these are not used for aerial photography and aerial cinematography.
    • The launcher is needed to get a drone into the air
    • Difficult to land the drone.
These drones are used in industries, agriculture sector, mapping, surveillance.

FIXED WING HYBRID DRONES

There is various type of drones under development some of which have a fixed-wing design with vertical lift motors on it. Some have rotors on their tail which just looks like an airplane.
Benefits of fixed-wing hybrid drones are
  • Greater endurance.
    • Ability to cover a longer distance with high speed.
    • Cover more ground compared to MRDs.
    • It can take-off and land vertically.
The drawback of fixed-wing hybrid drones are
  • Not perfect at either hovering or forward flight.
    • Still under development.
Used mostly for military operation where it is difficult for a manned aircraft to reach and in many other fields.
  • Types of drones based on their size get a drone into the air
  • VERY SMALL DRONE
These UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES are very small ie,up to 50cm.
  • SMALL DRONE
The size of these drones is less than 2 meters. These are the size of mostly used drones. These drones can be handled by a person
  • MEDIUM DRONE
Smaller than the size aircraft.  Two persons are needed to carry.
  • LARGE DRONE
These are replacements for the manned aircraft. Mostly used for military or surveillance purposes.
  • Types drones based on their range:
  • VERY CLOSE RANGE
These are mostly used for aerial photography, as a toy for kids and many commercial purposes. They fly upto 5km with a fly time of 20 to 45 minutes.
  • CLOSE RANGE
They can fly up to the range of 50km with a flight time of 1 to 6 hours. These are mostly used for surveillance missions.
  • SHORT RANGE
These drones are used for military applications. They can fly up to the range of 150km the average flight time of these drones is 8 to12 hours
  • MID RANGE
These drones are most powerful compared with other drones. They travel up to a maximum distance of 650 km. Commonly used for surveillance and meteorological data collection.
  • ENDURANCE
These drones can travel to a maximum distance of 3000 feet and has a flight time of 36 hours.
  • Types of drones based on their abilities and equipment:
  • GPS
These drones are gaining more popularity these days. As they can capture the footage or pictures of any particular location at a particular time as instructed. These drones remember the last shoot location and can be sent to the same location for the next shoot.
  • RTF
(Ready to Fly) These drones are for the beginners they just needed to charge the battery and ready to fly.
  • TRICK
These drones are mostly used as toys. These are about 10 inches in length. These drones can flip, roll and can to many other tricks in the air.
  • RACING:
As the name indicate their ability, these drones are specially made for racing. They are light in weight and easy to control and have a high speed of about 60 miles per hour.
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
These drones have the camera mounted on their body allowing you to get a bird’s eye view of the world.
  • UNDERWATER DRONES
Most of the drones won’t handle getting wet so a special type of drones is prepared to swim into the water. Components of a drone are sealed so that water can’t reach and damage the components. These drones used to study and monitor underwater behavior.
Many other drones can perform different tasks and have different equipment.

DRONE PARTS AND COMPONENTS:

  1. PROPELLERS:
  2. BRUSHLESS MOTORS:
  3. MOTOR MOUNT:
  4. LANDING GEAR:
  5. BOOMS:
  6. ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROLLERS (ESC) :
  7. FLIGHT CONTROLLER:
  8. GPS MODULE:
  9. RECEIVER:
  10. ANTENNA:
  11. BATTERY:
  12. GIMBAL:
  13. GIMBAL MOTOR:
  14. CAMERA:
  15. SENSORS:
  16. COLLISION AVOIDANCE SENSORS:

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