What is an UAV System?
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an aircraft capable of flying and completing a mission without a human on board.
More specifically, an UAV is dedicated to perform ISR missions (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) and flies according to the 3D rules : Dull (repetitive surveillance), Dirty (infected area), Dangerous.
An UAV system refers to the differents components required to its implentation :
- Air components : the UAV, its payload and a transmission system.
- Ground components : several materials allowing to lead the mission. Those components are generally gathered in a « Ground Control Station » (GCS) and ensure the flight and navigation control, the transfer of data collected from the UAV, their analysis and interpretation.
Portable and easy to deploy, UAV's can perform missions in a fully autonomous mode : those specific aspects allow even an unskilled operator to control it.
For optimal use outdoors, the GCS is designed to run on different types of laptops on battery power and can include rugged computer for harsh environments
A radio modem is used for telemetry and enables real time mission control. A second link is used to send the payload stream back to the GCS. The Ground Control Station software can be used before, during or after the flight.
The Ground Control Station software can be used before, during or after the flight.
Preflight
The software allows to describe and prepare the flight plan defining the overall mission profile/characteristics (location, altitude), a set of waypoints and a sequence of elementary phases. Before launching, the operator can simulate the flight plan and thus validate the mission.
During the flight
The graphical user interface displays real-time flight parameters received by telemetry. The aircraft position is indicated on a map with several terrain display options (e.g. satellite imagery or maps). The flight plan is overlaid and the user can interact directly during flight by changing the position of the waypoints, requesting the start of a specific phase or by setting a parameter. It is also possible to have data processed in real time and displayed on the map or another display.
After the flight
The operator can "replay" and review all flights based on actual data from the telemetry and payload data.