Autonomous Flying Robots

The advance in robotics has boosted the application of autonomous vehicles to perform tedious and risky tasks or to be cost-effective substitutes for their - man counterparts. Based on their working environment, a rough classification of the autonomous vehicles would include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), - manned ground vehicles (UGVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs). UAVs, UGVs, AUVs, and ASVs are called UVs (unmanned vehicles) nowadays. In recent decades, the development of - manned autonomous vehicles have been of great interest, and different kinds of autonomous vehicles have been studied and developed all over the world. In particular, UAVs have many applications in emergency situations; humans often cannot come close to a dangerous natural disaster such as an earthquake, a flood, an active volcano, or a nuclear disaster. Since the development of the first UAVs, research efforts have been focused on military applications. Recently, however, demand has arisen for UAVs such as aero-robots and flying robots that can be used in emergency situations and in industrial applications. Among the wide variety of UAVs that have been developed, small-scale HUAVs (helicopter-based UAVs) have the ability to take off and land vertically as well as the ability to cruise in ight, but their most important capability is hovering. Hoveringat a point enables us to make more effective observations of a target. Furthermore, small-scale HUAVs offer the advantages of low cost and easy operation.