AVIATION

ISSN 1648-7788 / eISSN 1822-4180

2015 Volume 19(1): 49–57
doi:10.3846/16487788.2015.1015295

UAVs AND THEIR AVIONIC SYSTEMS: DEVELOPMENT TRENDS

AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON POLISH RESEARCH AND MARKET
Cezary SZCZEPAŃSKI
Wrocław University of Technology, Wybrzeze Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław Poland
E-mail: [email protected]

Received 27 January 2014; accepted 20 January 2015

Cezary SZCZEPAŃSKI, Assoc. Prof. Dr Eng.

Education: 1980 – MSc Eng degree in aeronautics, Warsaw University of Technology,
Faculty of Power and Aeronautics; 1997 – PhD studies, Warsaw University of Technology,
Faculty of Power and Aeronautics, specialization: machine building and exploitation;
2005 – Dr. Sc. Eng (dr hab) Rzeszow University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering and Aeronautics, specialization: machine building and exploitation.
Affiliations and functions: 1984–2003, Warsaw University of Technology, Institute of
Aerospace Technology and Applied Mechanics, adjunct professor; 1991–2004, ETC-PZL
Aerospace Industries, president and CEO; 2004–2007, Polish Air Force Institute of
Technology, associated professor; 2006–2008, Military University of Technology, Faculty
of Mechatronics, associated professor, 2007–2008, Telecommunications Research Institute,
president & CEO; 2008–2011, Bumar Sp. z o.o., vice president, director of development;
since 2009 – Wrocław University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanics and Power,
head of Department of Aeronautical Engineering, associated professor.
Publications: author of 4 books and chapters in books, 23 articles, 61 conference papers,
over 70 report from research projects.

Abstract. In the paper the current status of development of UAVs and their avionic systems in Poland and world-
wide is presented. Technology and operation development trends, as well as key factors influencing them are described.
On this basis, research plans and suggested topics for development are proposed. The possibility of carrying them
out in Poland under present conditions is taken into consideration.
Keywords: UAV, avionic systems, development, trend, design.

1. Introduction area, whose demand for vehicles or their services has

1.1. Systems created specific types of UAVs or their payloads.
UAV – unmanned aerial vehicles, sometimes called According to (Daly 2011), there are currently 318
UAS, unmanned aircraft system, are becoming more contractors from 42 countries acting in that market,
and more significant users of aerospace. Historically, both locally and internationally. The latest edition of
armed forces were their first users. Now, one can see a AIAA Aerospace America (Wilson 2013b) dated 2013.09
rapid increase in the number of UAV users and groups. states, that there are 960 UAV types manufactured by 270
Among them are fire fighters, police, border police and companies in 57 countries. So the rapid increase in the
other homeland security institutions, forest adminis- number of places and units, where UAVs are developed
tration, agricultural screening institutions, sweet water and manufactured, is clearly evident. The difference in
monitoring institutions, weather forecasters, advertising the number of contractors listed by Jane’s and compan-
and promotion companies, nature preserving and ecolo- ies listed by Aerospace America results from the fact, that
gical status monitoring institutions, aviation archaeology the Jane’s lists companies that are delivering not only the
practitioners, pipelines and electric grid exploiting com- UAVs but also their elements, e.g. engines and/or pay-
panies. This list includes only the major players in this loads. In fact, the number of suppliers of complete UAS

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50 C. Szczepański. UAVs and their avionic systems: development trends and their influence on Polish research...

systems on Jane’s list is lower than in the latest Aerospace Rzeszow University of Technology (a few small UAVs,
America’s issue. listed in (Agusta… 2013), and avionics systems), Poznan
The world leaders in UAV development, manufac- and Warsaw Universities of Technology (basic research
turing and scope of usage are the USA and Israel. Jane’s on UAV and their models, and also controlling of UAV’s
lists 98 contractors from the USA, which is the biggest flight in aerospace), Academy of Mining and Metallurgy
number of all other countries, while Israel has the most (mini UAV and avionics systems). Silesian University of
extensive usage of UAVs, calculated in many millions of Technology has commercialized its research together
operational flight hours, flown by their UAV fleet. Those with WB Electronics company. PZL-Swidnik SA, an
countries were also the biggest UAV exporters in the Agusta-Westland company have showcased the SW-4
world, in 2012 Israel was the leader in that ranking. On Solo Rotorcraft Unmanned Air System/Optionally Pi-
the other hand, there are also policies of developing and loted Helicopter (RUAS/OPH) at fairs in Kielce, Poland
manufacturing UAVs only for the country’s own pur- (Agusta… 2013) (Fig. 2.).
poses. One can make a remark, that in the European avi-
In Poland, Jane’s lists only 2 contractors delivering ation sector remotely piloted and unmanned aircraft are
UAVs. They are: the Air Force Institute of Technology becoming the synonym of state-of-the-art technology.
and WB Electronics S.A. In fact, they are the only com- We are observing an increasing number of individual
panies in Poland delivering vehicles of several types, hobbyist and micro-companies constructing UAV of dif-
manufactured in a serial manner. There are also uni- ferent types, but usually micro and mini class, and offer-
versities, R+D centres and companies working on some ing them for local users of many kinds, like local author-
models, technology demonstrators and prototypes of ities, PR companies and event organizing individuals.
UAVs. Among them, there are: the Institute of Aviation The first usage experience of UAVs came from their
(VTOL UAV and avionics systems), Wroclaw Univer- military applications. The Israeli Air Force was the first
sity of Technology (nano, micro (Fig. 1) and mini UAV), extensive user of UAVs. They have been effectively using
their UAV fleet for more than 30 years. Individual types
of their most popular air vehicles have flown millions of
operating flight hours. It is indicated in (Israeli… 2013)
that, during the last few years, UAV sorties constituted
more than 50% of all operating IAF flights. Reconnais-
sance operations are the most popular operations, but
firing of light air-to-ground missiles and logistics mis-
sions are becoming more and more common. Other
Israeli Armed Forces widely exploit loitering UAVs
equipped with missiles or constituting missiles them-
selves. The other big user, currently the biggest user of
UAVs, is the US Armed Forces. They have fielded thou-
sands of units of different types, which have been ex-
tensively used, since the Gulf War in the early nineties.
A single Predator RPA1 UAV, for example, on May the
Fig. 1. A micro UAV from Wrocław University of Technology, 5th, 2013, crossed its 20.000 hour of flight in Afghanistan
the winner of SAE Aero Design competition in micro UAV starting from October 2004, out of which 95% were op-
class, in April 2014 erational flights (Single… 2013). Other missions are per-
formed by several specialized UAVs (Airmen… 2009):
from dual-missions of close-air support and ISR task-
ing, lasting over 12 hours at an altitude above 50.000
feet, which are performed by MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9
Reaper, ISR missions, similar to the previously men-
tioned, by RQ-4 Global Hawk, to missions performed
by a tactically armed, tube-launched Switchblade with a
total weight of 2.5 kg. Each division of the US Armed
Forces has their own specialized types of UAVs, able
to perform specific tasks. In Europe, the United King-
dom’s armed forces is a massive user of UAVs is, with

Fig. 2. Unmanned/optionally piloted helicopter “SW-4 Solo” 1 Predator number 107 (P107).
Aviation, 2015, 19(1): 49–57 51

their 500 UAVs (British… 2013). They exploit several

types of systems, starting with the Reaper, armed with
Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs, to the Black
Hornet mini-helicopter, which can fit in a hand, with the
Hermes 450 surveillance drone which will be replaced
by the new Watchkeeper, in between. Operational use of
UAS increased substantially during the last five years. In
2008, there were 296 missions in Afghanistan and one
or more missiles were deployed by a British-operated
Reaper in 14 missions, which is 5 per cent of the total
number of sorties. In 2012, there were 892 missions, with
weapons being fired on 92 occasions, which amounts to
more than 10 per cent of all sorties. In Poland, with the Fig. 3. 3DM-GX3-45-miniature-GPS-aided-inertial-navi­ga­
tion-system
exception of aerial targets, only tactical reconnaissance
UAVs is used. Lately, Poland has joined the NATO pro-
gram of Euro Hawk (Poland… 2013), which concerns ground vehicles, optics, image processing, etc. Since spe-
RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40, radar-equipped UAVs. Po- cific aeronautical requirements do not apply to them be-
land became the 15th country in that Alliance Ground cause of low level flights performed by small UAVs, the
Surveillance programme. avionics equipment uses solutions developed for other
applications, which are manufactured in high-volume
1.2. Avionics
numbers, and are, therefore, cheap. This promotes the
Avionics systems applied into UAVs were adapted from use of such devices, which is the basis for emerging new
standard aviation avionics. In fact, the majority of those operational areas for UAVs.
systems are similar or exactly the same. Only special-
ised requirements for UAV systems caused the devel- 1.3. Law
opment of some avionics systems dedicated to UAVs. There is no law, in any country, defining the conditions
Among them there are: communication and data trans- of flying a UAV in controlled aerospace together with
mission systems, autopilots, observation and reconnais- manned aircraft. In Europe’s legislative network, UAVs
sance systems. Other avionic on-board systems, such or rather RPASs (remotely piloted air systems), are di-
as power supply, armament control, navigation, are the vided into two major groups, each regulated by differ-
same or very similar to their manned aviation coun- ent authorities. UAVs of TOWs over 150 kg are regu-
terparts. In general, one can say, that UAV dedicated lated by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA),
avionics systems are lighter, more compact and simpler while light ones fall under national competence. In
that their manned aircraft versions. Very often they are consequence, a set of European and national rules need
not doubled nor manufactured according to aerospace to be developed and harmonized as far as possible “in
standards. These remarks are valid particularly for small order to ensure a true single market for aerial services”
UAV equipment, whose operational flight time is short (Roadmap… 2013). In Poland the UAVs not exceeding
(less than 1 hour) and the probability of loss is compar- the total weight of 32 kg can fly at altitude below 1000
atively high. Such UAVs need to be cheap and easy to feet without any restrictions, unless some special rules
replace. Their on-board avionics systems constitute the are introduced related to a certain area.
majority of their price, so usage of COTS equipment, In the USA the Congress set September the 30th,
which is easily available and cheap, is a standard for such 2015, as the Federal Aviation Administration target date
UAV constructors. to safety integrate UAVs into the national airspace. Ac-
From the avionics point of view, the most inter- cording to FAA estimation, there could be as many as
esting part of on-board equipment are IMUs (inertial 7.500 drones in commercial use in the USA within five
measurement units) very small, packed in one chip com- years. Therefore, it seems that it is very necessary to com-
bined with the GPS signal processor (Fig. 3), the mi- ply with the target date.
cro-technology for positioning, navigation and timing In Europe, a European Union’s roadmap has been
(Micro-PNT) without a GPS (DARPA’s… 2013), multi developed in order to achieve the above mentioned goal.
spectral observation systems (day and night) EO/IR, It aims to provide a clear strategy, define the priorities
e.g. (Hood… 2013), video tracking systems (GE Intro- and describe concrete tasks with respect to the three
duces… 2013) and radars. This equipment is sometimes main areas: aviation regulation, technology and soci-
designed and manufactured by companies which have etal impact, i.e. data and privacy protection, insurance
been active in non-aeronautical fields, such as medicine, and liability. As a consequence, within the 7th Frame
52 C. Szczepański. UAVs and their avionic systems: development trends and their influence on Polish research...

Program some research projects concerning UAV have e.g. Israeli Heron or its US twin, has its versions dedic-
been funded, in order to achieve the previously defined ated to Army and Navy. Those differences can be seen
tasks. The EU provides funding for the following areas in the fuselage structure, power plant, on-board avionics
of UAV application: precision agriculture, infrastruc- equipment, and other payload.
ture inspection, wind energy monitoring, pipeline and Specialization is reflected in the UAV’s structure,
power inspection, highway monitoring, natural resource size and cost. All those aspects can be optimized accord-
monitoring, environmental compliance, atmospheric re- ing to a predefined, narrow range of functions and tasks,
search, media and entertainment, sports photos, filming, to be performed by the system. Furthermore, it allows
wildlife research, hunting and anti-hunting monitoring, reducing the price of such a UAV, particularly if its man-
disaster relief. In the EU Commission policies the time ufactured in a serial manner. An example of such a sys-
frame for establishing a common controlled air space has tem could be any of the so called loitering UAVs, which
been established as follows: “After completing an extens- are specialized flying munitions, able to search, identify
ive set of consultations with the Member States and other and destroy previously defined targets, such as the Israeli
European stakeholders on the future of RPAS the Com- “Harop” or the US “BattleHawk” (US Army… 2013).
mission is now preparing a roadmap for safe RPAS in- Specialized UAVs are also used in civil applications,
tegration into the European airspace system from 2016” among them there are nano, micro and mini devices, like
(Roadmap… 2013; European Commission 2013). RoboBee (Eshel 2013) or ScanEagle (ScanEagle… 2013)
Polish Civil Aviation Authority has created a work- (Fig. 4), able to fly in specific environment and perform
ing group dedicated to solving this problem. It consists of reconnaissance.
representatives of institutions involved in UAV develop-
ment, exploitation and air space control: the Agency of
Home Security (ABW), Polish Air Force, Bialystok Uni-
versity of Technology, Gdansk University of Technology,
Poznan University of Technology, Aviation Institute and
Polish CAA. During the group’s last meeting2 the de-
cision to prepare a valid order of the Polish Ministry of
Transportation has been made. The deadline for imple-
mentation of such a decision and inclusion of UAVs into
the controlled air space has been set for the end of 2016.
Operational flights of UAVs in controlled air space
are subject to individual approval. All countries should
include such rules in their regulations, like the USA Fig. 4. ScanEagle UAV monitoring arctic waters
(U.S. Department… 2013). The key to obtaining ap-
proval from regulatory agencies is a proven “sense-and- 2.2. Automation
avoid” capability to prevent collisions with other aircraft. Automation in UAVs means not only the ability to
2. Trends perform flights in autopilot mode during certain flight
mission stages, but also performing the mission tasks in
One can easily see the rapid changes which take place in this mode. Another achievement of this trend is mis-
UAV aviation. They cover almost every aspect, includ- sion tasks performed completely in automatic mode by
ing users, operation, development and technology. Some a group of cooperating UAVs. A military area example
of them result from general changes in our society and could be a mission consisting of searching, reckoning,
technology, but others are specifically UAV connected. identifying and destroying the object located somewhere
The most important ones for UAVs are discussed in the within a previously defined range. Such a task was per-
following part of this paper. formed almost two years ago by a group of a few UAVs,
2.1. Specialization among which there were ISR, communication relay and
armament equipped devices. They found, identified and
The trend of specialization of UAV functions and tasks
then destroyed a car parked at a parking lot, among
has resulted in the fact that, at present, no new univer-
other vehicles, without any control from the mission
sal systems have appeared. Universal here means that
control centre. The UAV group transmitted information
the same system can be used by different users and/or
on mission performance in on-line mode, which allowed
for different applications. Even the same type of UAV,
eventual correction of mission participants’ action by the
2
ground human controller. Another example of general
26 March 2013 at ULC http://www.ulc.gov.pl/index.php?-
option=com_content&view=category&id=346&Item- importance for aviation is in-flight refuelling. Such a
id=1504&lang=pl mission has been successfully completed by UAVs in an
Aviation, 2015, 19(1): 49–57 53

independent mode. For the first time at the end of 2008 That last part shows the latest trends, which res-
(Warwick 2008) a fully autonomous rendezvous and ult in intensive development of UAV systems and their
docking was performed, but it did not involve actual applications. It results in new areas of air operations
fuel transfer. It was mastered in complete sequence with and activities not yet connected with such abilities.
a real fuel transfer between UAVs in 2012.
2.4. Increase the number of suppliers
2.3. Design variety In the last years there has been a substantial increase
UAV design variety is closely related to the specializa- in the number and groups of UAV developers, as well
tion of systems. New structures and ideas for lift force as in the aspects of their location and also their type
sources and their layout will probably appear and be of activity. Except for traditional suppliers of UAV,
proposed the range of when UAV functions is extended. like Israel, which is the world’s largest exporter of un-
The following types of UAV, perform typical missions manned aircraft systems in terms of volume, variety of
and tasks, both in military and civil areas: systems, as well as the number of countries to which
–– Reconnaissance of class: these items were sold over the past decade (Frost…
-- HALE – High Altitude Long Endurance (altitude 2013), and the USA, new countries are now offering
over 7000 m and time of flight – over 8 h, max- their systems for exportation or developing them for
imum – over 50 h, at present); they are of stra- their home use. Such a trend is seen not only in the
tegic and operational levels; countries with a strong tradition in the aviation in-
-- MALE – Medium Altitude Long Endurance dustry, but also in those countries which have had
(altitude – 300 to 7000 m, and long endurance of no such assets or are poorly developed from the in-
flight); it is in operational level; dustrial point of view. Colombian VTOL “Chronos”
-- Tactical – performing flights at altitudes up to (Fig. 5) could be seen as such an example, with cov-
3000 m, in an operational radius up to 20 km; ert equipment for use by special forces’ personnel and
-- Local – performing flights at altitudes up to 300 for agricultural, industrial applications (New… 2013),
m, within time up to 1.5 h; and Nigerian Amebo III “designed to enhance aerial
-- Mini, micro, nano – with total weights from 10 surveillance capabilities of the Nigerian Air Force” cre-
grams up to 1 kg, performing flights within the ated by several MSc students of Nigerian Air Force
time from a few to over a dozen minutes, often Institute of Technology, with support from UK Cran-
within buildings. field University (Nigerian… 2013). In countries with
–– Armed: a well-established aviation industry, spin-off compan-
-- Flying munition, so called loitering UAVs, ies dedicated to a single idea from the UAV techno-
searching for targets and, after confirmation logy area are appearing. They are offering new design
from ground control centre, hitting them by UAVs, new concepts of control, avionics or payload
themselves; systems. When they become a successful business very
-- Armed versions of big reconnaissance UAVs, able often they are acquired by large aerospace companies.
to fly with classic missiles and guided bombs, act- That trend can be summarized as: everybody
ing like the above mentioned loitering systems; wants to have his/her own UAV (Wilson 2013a),
-- Detecting and destroying land mines – the new- which now becomes feasible even for individuals at
est type of UAVs. They have the shape of a single their homes (DIY… 2013).
rotor NOTAR helicopter.
–– Flying targets – powered with a rotor, jet or rocket
engines, performed flights on a predefined path, with
a predefined velocity. Such tasks could also be used for
many civil applications.
–– Transport – most often manned helicopters trans-
formed into a UAV or rather OPAV (optionally piloted
aerial vehicle), used for automatic delivery of cargo
required at danger zones.
–– Complex tasks, performed by groups of UAVs, in
autonomous mode. Those groups consist of the above
mentioned UAVs equipped with the systems dedicated
to specific tasks to be performed. The group of UAVs
is listed here as a type because it is a unit which cannot
be used effectively without any of its element vehicles. Fig. 5. Colombian UAV “Chronos”
54 C. Szczepański. UAVs and their avionic systems: development trends and their influence on Polish research...

3. Factors influencing trends –– Substantial capacity increase of communication

3.1. New applications and users and data transmission systems.
New applications and users are connected with the UAV 3.3. Dissemination of UAV
technology becoming more mature, its popularization That dissemination of UAVs has been analysed and dis-
and the decreasing of its cost. New application areas cussed in previous parts of the paper, together with new
can be found both in military and civilian areas. In the applications and te users. The dissemination factor also
military the areas are land mine hunting, escorting and covers the case, when only the number of units is in-
monitoring operations of other elements, providing creasing, without new users or applications appearing.
auxiliary infrastructure, scanning routes, spotting IEDs This is the most common situation, as more experienced
and providing communication relays, interception or users are able to validate the results of applying UAV
air-to-air and air superiority missions (Unger 2013). In technology to their activities. An extensive increase in
civilian areas the developments are viewed in firefighting operational UAV numbers proves their effectiveness and
(Oklahoma… 2013) and police missions, and purely ci- functionality.
vilian missions such as weather research, oceanographic Development of UAVs and their equipment mar-
and polar exploration, agricultural (Nigerian… 2013) kets caused substantial decrease in their prices. It has
and forest monitoring (UAS… 2013b), advertising and increased the availability of this technology for an exten-
hobbies (aerial photography), aerial archaeology (UAS… ded range of users, which in consequence has broadened
2013a), etc. and deepened the market. It is a kind of self-powered
New users are emerging from new application system.
areas. The biggest in number are scientific institutions,
such as universities or specialized research centres, news 3.4. Technology availability
agencies, TV networks, pipeline and grid exploiters, Comparatively easy access to technologies connected
filmmakers. Among the new users there are some unique with the construction and exploitation of UAV allows
ones, such as wildlife observers (Vermeulen et al. 2013; an explosive increase of designers and manufacturers of
Idaho Power Company 2013), UN organizations (UN… unmanned systems. Very often advanced hobbyists are
2013), mountain rescue services (UAS… 2013c), cour- able to design and construct or rather integrate quite
ier service companies (Autocopter… 2013). Such an complex and sophisticated units. For less advanced ones,
explosion in the demand and production of UAVs for there are offers for UAV’s in kits for home integrating
non-military applications is certain to become a new (DIY… 2013). The same situation can be seen in the case
driving force for advancing UAV technologies. On the of on-board equipment, like day light cameras, where
other hand, it will generate debate on privacy and safety standard devices are successfully applied to amateur
issues and put pressure on lawmakers to respond. photographing and footage of private events.
3.2. Technology development 3.5. Law and societal aspects
The main areas of technology influencing the develop- Lack of laws allowing high altitude flying of civilian
ment of UAV trends are composite materials and their UAVs is still keeping them out of common use. Plans for
application techniques, and also payload. Modern com- introducing such a law by the end of 2016 in most of the
posite materials have become standard for UAV fuselage developed countries gives the hope for a quick develop-
construction. The latest achievement here is 3D printing ment of UAV technologies and applications. Although,
of UAV structural elements. it brings into focus the problem of observing privacy
The key technology factor influencing UAV devel- in everyday life. People protesting against breaking of
opment trends is payload, including on-board avionics privacy rules are preparing themselves for fighting for
systems. Inside this group there are some areas, which their rights already. Such a fight could now look rather
could be treated as crucial for new applications and funny, like in the case in (Deer… 2013), where licenses
designs. for hunting UAVs are given to citizens of one of Col-
–– Dissemination of sensors and devices built in orado’s cities, but in the future this could be more seri-
MEMS technology, e.g. (Epson… 2013; Silicon… ous. Safety issues, which are brought into focus by some
2013). lawmakers, should also be of interest to the industry. As
–– Miniaturization of observation systems: optical, long as potential accidents are connected with conscious
infra-red, radar (SAR, ISAR), e.g. (Micro-Epsi- UAV users, e.g. (Model… 2013), where a UAV beheaded
lon… 2013). its user, there will be no further consequences. If they
–– Common availability of satellite communication would involve other persons, then serious problems
for commercial and private users. could arise for all UAV market players.
Aviation, 2015, 19(1): 49–57 55

4. Polish UAV market and R&D

Polish assets in the UAV field have been listed in the
previous paragraph of the paper. The conclusion is that
UAVs and their applications are underdeveloped for a
country of Poland’s size and technological level.
The potential market for UAV’s in Poland is huge in
both military and civil areas. All kinds of Polish armed
forces should have in their inventory a much bigger
number of UAVs of many kinds, dedicated to different
missions and tasks, to be performed in different environ-
ments (Fig. 6). Similar situation exists in police, boarder
police, fire fighting and other institutions responsible for Fig. 6. Flying target “Szerszeń” made by the Polish Air Force
crisis management and home security. Civilian users, Institute of Technology
such as state forest administration, agricultural admin-
istration or companies exploiting pipelines and grids, are 2012), helicopters: Little Bird (MD500 in origin)
next potential clients for specialized UAVs. Even the ser- (McCarthy 2012), Kaman K-max, Berkut VL
vices listed here, potential clients for big UAVs able to (UAE… 2013), SW-4 (Polish… 2013).
perform the long lasting flights, could exploit hundreds Social trends connected with UAVs are also ap-
of units, in total. We can easily add to that account hun- pearing. One of them is the development of social net-
dreds of small size and shorter time of flight systems, works for UAV users and/or hobbyists, like Dronesta-
which could be used by local authorities, companies and gram (Dronestagram… 2013). It is a social network for
private persons. After a proper law comes into force, al- UAV owners to share their aerial photos of cityscapes,
lowing civilian UAVs to fly in controlled air space, one countryside, sporting and other kind of events. Another
can expect an explosive increase in UAVs’ number and trend is associated with replacing the broadly used terms
types in Poland. That demand should be, in the author’s UAV or UAS, which have bad connotations related to in
opinion, fulfilled by local developers and suppliers of combat usage of those vehicles, with the term RPAV (re-
UAV systems, particularly of small sizes. All trends and motely piloted air vehicles). This would allow minimiz-
factors discussed above, as well as the aerospace techno- ing or even getting rid of citizens’ fear that autonomous
logy level and general technology level in Poland show flying robots could injure or kill them and damage or
that this is probable. destroy their homes.
Polish research and development trends in UAV In Poland of the development of UAVs started in
technology area reflect the developments which are seen the nineties. Many of the units were designed and built
in Europe (European Commission 2013) and the rest of by R&D centres and technical universities, but none of
the world (Sweetman 2013). A list of key areas for devel- them were commercialized and fielded. Currently, the
opment and research is provided below. same institutions are working out new UAV designs,
–– Power source: solar, diesel engines, fuel cells, all their control systems, avionics, and payloads (mainly for
electric vehicles, hybrid power unit. observation). There are attempts to complete the devel-
–– Different ways of achieving vertical take-off and opment process and fielding of such systems, which un-
landing: hybrid power unit, where electrical en- fortunately are not strongly supported by potential stake
gines powered by a piston one drive the rotors holders of UAV systems. More hope for completing the
directly, tail sitting vehicles, the hot-cycle tip-jet3. process is for the SW-4 SOLO OPAV being developed
–– Avionics and payload: on-board electronically by “Agusta-Westland Company” – WSK Swidnik, on the
scanned array radars, small integrated EO/IR base of its SW-4 manned helicopter. Although there is a
stabilized observation turrets, small high resol- Polish MOD’s R&D program for military UAV develop-
ution SAR and ISAR radars, generally “longer ment which is of high priority, the financial conditions
range, higher resolution, ‘platform-agnostic’ ISR and decision on introducing the above mentioned Euro
sensors” (US Air… 2013). Hawk into the service are not indicating a promising fu-
–– Transforming manned aeroplanes and heli- ture.
copters into OPAVs, planned, performed or only
studied for: Gripen (Gripen… 2013), F4 (Host 6. Conclusions
The paper describes trends of UAV market development
3 and also factors influencing them that are a worldwide
A simple gas-turbine engine is mounted on the rotorhead
and an exhaust is ducted along the blades to nozzles in the standard. Thanks to globalisation of information, tech-
tips. An ATRO-X helicopter type UAV. nology, trade and peoples’ aspirations, we can see very
56 C. Szczepański. UAVs and their avionic systems: development trends and their influence on Polish research...

similar unmanned aircraft indigenously developed and DARPA’s micro-technology for positioning, navigation and
used in many countries. For the majority of UAV types, timing (Micro-PNT) without GPS, UAS Vision Daily News
[online]. 2013 [cited 18 April 2013]. Available from In-
their development and exploitation costs are reasonable, ternet: http://www.uasvision.com/2013/04/18/darpas-mi-
which allows for their widespread use. While consider- cro-technology-for-positioning-navigation-and-tim-
ing non-profit R&D devices or units built for non-com- ing-micro-pnt-without-gps/?utm_source=Newslette-
mercial usage, we do not need to think about their tech- r&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dfda918be0
nical and commercial effectiveness. For commercially Deer trail clerk returning cheques for UAS hunting licences,
UAS Vision Daily News [online]. 2013 [cited 09 Septem-
produced systems this is a must. In such cases, each ber 2013]. Available from Internet: http://www.uasvision.
developer or even each country should establish their com/2013/09/09/deer-trail-clerk-returning-cheques-for-
specialisation in the UAV area, keeping in mind that this uas-hunting-licences
market is of a world-wide size. Tough competition in DIY (drone it yourself) UAS in a box kit, UAS Vision Daily News
[online]. 2013 [cited 08 July 2013]. Available from Internet:
the market will not permit the existence of ineffective
http://www.uasvision.com/2013/07/08/diy-drone-it-your-
manufacturers or systems. The proper choice of such a self-uas-in-a-box-kit/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_me-
specialisation is a basis for a successful future. dium=email&utm_campaign=b1b496c637-RSS_EMAIL_
Taking into consideration the strengths and capab- CAMPAIGN&utm_term=0_799756aeb7-b1b496c637-
ilities of Polish R&D centres, the demand from potential 297544857#sthash.xlYF7h5C.dpuf
Dronestagram social network site for sharing for aerial pic-
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tures, UAS Vision Daily News [online]. 2013 [cited 25
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the author’s opinion, the following directions for future com/2013/07/25/dronestagr-am-social-network-site-for-
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06 September 2013]. Available from Internet: http://www.
of users. unmannedsystemstechnology.com/2013/05/epson-elec-
–– Observation and ISR systems including UAVs for tronics-america-inc/?goback=%2Egde_896357_mem-
military and civil applications. ber_271553189#%21
–– Software for group actions of UAVs. Eshel, T. 2013. Insect Size RoboBee Performs Controlled Flight
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–– Specialized on-board sensors and software for
http://i-hls.com/2013/05/insect-size-robobee-performs-
their integration. controlled-flight/?goback=%2Egde_896357_mem-
–– Specialized avionics devices with software. ber_240085345
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would be reasonable and potentially could bring expec-
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