1. Artificial Intelligence in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)
Andrew Sawchuk

2. History of the UAV
1915: Nikola Tesla describes a fleet of unmanned aerial combat vehicles
1916: First powered unmanned aerial vehicle was A. M. Low's "Aerial Target"
: Several more attempts were made at unmanned aerial vehicles, particularly during the technology rush of World War II
1951: First jet-powered unmanned aerial vehicle, the Teledyne Ryan Firebee I was unveiled

3. More UAV History
1959: The United States Air Force launches its UAV development program, named Red Wagon
Up to this point, UAVs were basically just remote-controlled aircraft
1980s: Israel develops the first "modern UAV", pioneering the use of UAVs for real-time surveillance, electronic warfare and decoys
1986: AAI Corporation introduces the AAI Pioneer UAV (seen on right), which is purchased and used by the Department of Defense, and later used for surveillance during the Gulf War in 1991

4. UAVs In Use Today
In 2008, the United States Air Force employed 5,331 UAVs, twice the number of manned planes
In February 2013, over 50 countries are reported to have UAVs in use
USAF today employs both General Atomics MQ-1 Predators (left), and Northrop Grumman RQ-1 Global Hawks (right)
Predators carried out over 2,000 missions (including 242 raids) in alone
Global Hawks are used for recon, but operate nearly completely autonomously, and are capable of surveying 40,000 square miles in a single 28-hour session before returning to base

5. UAV Types and Uses Commercial Civilian Government Military
Remote sensing - measure radiation, chemicals, etc.
Natural resource exploration - minerals, oils, etc.
Surveillance
Civilian Government
Search and rescue
Forest fire detection
Scientific research - hurricanes (NOAA), extreme climates
Domestic policing
Military
Transport - food, supplies, etc.
Armed attacks

6. AUVSI Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition
Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI)
2,200 companies
55 countries
World's largest non-profit organization for the advancement of autonomous systems community
Annual competition includes autonomous flight, navigation of a specified course and use of onboard payload sensors
~30 teams from around the world
Entrants must autonomously:
Take-off
Fly a set of GPS waypoints
Gather and relay information on a set of targets on the ground during the flight
Land A E M B

7. AI Modules in a Complete UAV System

8. Fuzzy Logic Form of many-valued logic
Used more for approximate reasoning, rather than exact reasoning
Instead of variables that are either true or false, they take on a decimal truth value, ranging from 0 to 1
Different actions (of varying severity) may be taken based on how true a given value is

9. Fuzzy Flight Controller
AI that makes use of sensors and actuators
Flight Plan
Sensors
Actuators
Accelerometer
Elevator
Fuzzy
Logic
Flight
Controller
Altimeter
Rudder
Compass
Throttle
GPS Receiver
Ailerons

10. Conclusion
Completely autonomous UAV systems are conglomerations of many different AI subsystems
Development in the field of UAV systems is expanding rapidly
UAV systems are extremely useful for performing dangerous tasks

11. References Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
AAI RQ-2 Pioneer
General Atomics MQ-1 Predator
Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk
AUVSI Unmanned Air Systems Competition
Application of Artificial Intelligence Techniques in Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Flight
Artificial intelligence methodologies applicable to support the decision-making capability on board Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Fuzzy Logic
Cornell University Unmanned Air Systems