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An overview of emerging results in cooperative UAV control

2004

Abstract

Inexpensive fixed wing UAVs are increasingly useful in remote sensing operations. They are a cheaper alternative to manned vehicles, and are ideally suited for dangerous or monotonous missions that would be inadvisable for a human pilot. Groups of UAVs are of special interest for their abilities to coordinate simultaneous coverage of large areas, or cooperate to achieve goals such as mapping. Cooperation and coordination in UAV groups also allows increasingly large numbers of aircraft to be operated by a single user. Specific applications under consideration for groups of cooperating UAVs are border patrol, search and rescue, surveillance, communications relaying, and mapping of hostile territory. The capabilities of small UAVs continue to grow with advances in wireless communications and computing power.