IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - November/December 2021 - 10

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
& UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAVs) have been
gaining significant attention in recent times as
they are becoming increasingly accessible and
easier to use. The current advancements in flight
controllers have enabled users to fly a recreational
UAV without any prior flight experience.
Hence, the number of recreational UAVs has
shown a tremendous surge in recent years. The
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reports
that 990,000 recreational UAVs were registered
by December 2019, up from 137,701 in the fourth
quarter of 2015.1 UAVs are currently used in a
variety of applications, ranging from civilian tasks
to military reconnaissance and strike missions.
Civilian UAVs can be used for recreational
purposes or used in commercial applications,
such as aerial cinematography, agriculture to
spray pesticides and herbicides, and logistics.
UAVs can also be used in more critical applications,
such as search and rescue missions, and
delivering medical supplies. UAVs have been
used in military applications since the early
1970s, and their role is growing now more than
ever. As of 2018, the number of remotely piloted
aircraft in the U.S. Air Force rose from 1366 in
2013 to 2404.2
UAVs have been the subject of considerable
research over time and various UAV topics have
been covered. Shakhatreh et al.3 research covered
in-depth the civilian applications of UAVs
and the key challenges and problems that each
application are facing. The authors provided a
classification of UAVs based on the communication
platform into low-altitude platform (LAP)
and high-altitude platform (HAP). Kim et al.4 provided
a comprehensive study on the use of UAVs
in agriculture. They defined a basic UAV architecture
based on the body type as fixed-wing or
rotatory wing. The authors explored the hardware,
sensors, and communication systems
that are used in agricultural UAVs. The authors
further discussed the limitations of UAVs in agricultural
applications. Gupte et al.5 surveyed
quadcopter UAVs. The authors discussed the flying
mechanism, control systems, and some of
the sensors of quadcopter UAVs. The survey,
however, did not discuss the applications of
UAVs.
This article aims to provide a brief introduction
to the UAV systems' architecture,
10
classification, and applications to help
researchers and practitioners starting in this
field get adequate information to understand
the current state of UAV technologies. This article
begins the discussion by inspecting the
UAVs' body configuration styles and building
materials. The article then explores the physical
components and sensors that are essential
to operate and fly a UAV system as well other
components and sensors that could be installed
for mission-specific purposes. The article discusses
different propulsion methods that are
used to power the UAVs and explore various
payloads that might be attached to a UAV. The
article provides different classifications of
UAVs such as that based on the U.S. Department
of Defense (DOD) group classification and
other classifications based on weight, wingspan,
and altitude. The article explores different
applications of UAVs in recreational, commercial,
and military domains.
Our main contributions in this article are as
follows.
Discussion of UAV architecture and components
including UAV body styles, sensors,
flight controller, propulsion methods, and
payload.
Providing a comparison of several components
for state-of-the-art UAVs.
Examining different classifications of UAVs
such as the one based on DOD group classification
and the others based on UAV weight,
wingspan, and altitude.
Elaboration of a variety of recreational, commercial,
and military applications of UAVs.
Discussion of futuristic embodiments and
applications of UAVs and the challenges
associated with these technologies.
UAV ARCHITECTURE
Most UAVs are made up of modular components
that fit on and inside the body of UAVs
and are powered by an energy supply. Depending
on the style of flight and missions to be performed,
a UAV can have one of many different
body configurations. This section discusses UAV
body styles, body material, and different components
of UAVs.
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - November/December 2021

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