Civilian applications and policy implications of commercial unmanned aerial vehicles

As UAV capabilities continue to improve the technology will spill out of the military sector and into commercial and civil applications. Already, UAVs have demonstrated commercial marketability in such diverse areas as scientific and environmental research, cross-seas shipping, communications relays, emergency management, border monitoring, agriculture, and aerial photography. Small-scale tactical UAVs in particular have an enormous potential to fulfill a number of roles within urban centers, transforming the way civil safety institutions carry out their jobs. A lack of established flight regulations is currently the greatest barrier to the standardized use of these vehicles. While the United States is currently the world's leader in UAV manufacturing, this position is tenuous given strong competitive threats from a variety of foreign countries who are already ahead in establishing a standardized regulatory environment for UAVs. As part of a larger research effort focused on the design, implementation, and demonstration of highly maneuverable rotorcraft UAVs, the primary objective of this work is to examine how UAVs might gain access to and function safely in civil and commercial markets. Despite the wide variety of existing UAVs in terms of size, targeted flight altitude, and capability, this work focuses primarily on small-scale tactical vehicles with the intended purpose of operating in and around urban centers. Operational requirements and risk mitigation strategies can be devised and effectively implemented to allow such UAVs to be operated at an acceptable level of risk. By combining GIS data manipulation with modem approaches to path-planning, UAVs can be operated such that the risk to the general public and urban infrastructure is

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Sprague, Kara Lynn, 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Eric Feron.

• Technology and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/16669

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/16669