Research into Autonomous Vehicles - Jason Harries

One of the main reasons Autonomous vehicles were created was so that vehicles could go into extreme conditions and not be manned by a human being. The military have been playing with this idea for years now, and they have come up with a few ideas.

US Army - MQ-1 Predator
This aircraft was first used a only as surveillance unit, but since it is a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) it could fly at higher altitudes and for longer, and can go into situations that wuold be dangerous for humans. It was then turned into one of the first fully functional UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle), by simply strapping two Hellfire missiles to the bottom of the fuselage. It was then developed into the MQ-9 Reaper.


It is controlled by:
- Four air vehicles, with integrated sensors
- Ground Control Station, which allows a trained officer to remote control the aircraft.
- Primary Sattellite link communication suite, which allows the GCS to operate and the uploading a analysing of the data going to and from the aircraft.

Direct radio signals cotrolled the take off and acent of the predator. After the aircraft is in stable flight it would then be switched over to military satellite link, so the aircraft is controlled through the same controls and the radio signals, but through the satelittle link. This is because with the radio signals the pilot had a delay in control, and i was found out that throught he satellitte link the delay was improved by 2000 times and did not dimish over vast distances. it has a dome 'eye' on the nose of the fuselage which holds the sensors that aid the pilot, which contains:

- Multi Spectral Targetting System
- Day TV Camera, for general use.
- Infra Red Camera, for night time viewing
- Synthetic Aperture Radar, for still radar images
- Laser Designator, for laser sighting and laser guiding the Hellfore missile.