An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller and a system of communications with the UAV. The flight of UAVs may operate under remote control by a human operator, as remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA), or with various degrees of autonomy, such as autopilot assistance, up to fully autonomous aircraft that have no provision for human intervention.
APM, apm, or Apm may refer to:
An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator's control of the vehicle, allowing the operator to focus on broader aspects of operations.
The CarterCopter is an experimental compound autogyro developed by Carter Aviation Technologies in the United States to demonstrate slowed rotor technology. On 17 June 2005, the CarterCopter became the first rotorcraft to achieve mu-1 (μ=1), an equal ratio of airspeed to rotor tip speed, but crashed on the next flight and has been inoperable since. It is being replaced by the Carter Personal Air Vehicle.
Slugs is an open-source autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft. Low cost and wide availability enable hobbyist use in small remotely piloted aircraft. The project started in 2009 and is being further developed and used at Autonomous Systems Lab of University of California Santa Cruz. Several vendors produce Slugs autopilots and accessories.
A backpack helicopter is a helicopter motor and rotor and controls assembly that can be strapped to a person's back, so they can walk about on the ground wearing it, and can use it to fly. It uses a harness like a parachute harness and should have a strap between the legs. Some designs may use a ducted fan design to increase upward thrust. Several inventors have tried to make backpack helicopters, with mixed results.
The Royal Australian Air Force's Aircraft Research and Development Unit (ARDU) plans, conducts and analyses the results of ground and flight testing of existing and new Air Force aircraft. ARDU consists of three test and evaluation flights (TEFs) located at RAAF Bases Edinburgh, Amberley and Williamtown, staffed by qualified test pilots, flight test engineers and flight test system specialists. Up until 2016 the Squadron also conducted flight test for the Australian Army with Army personnel also working within the unit.
The Batcopter is the fictional personal helicopter of the DC Comics superhero Batman.
LibrePilot is a Free software unmanned aerial vehicle project for model aircraft aimed at supporting both multi-rotor craft as well as fixed-wing aircraft. Initially founded by David Ankers, Angus Peart and Vassilis Varveropoulos in late 2009, under the name OpenPilot, it was conceived as both a learning tool and to address areas the developers perceived were lacking in other small UAV platforms. In July 2015 OpenPilot, was forked to create LibrePilot.
A multirotor or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two lift-generating rotors. An advantage of multirotor aircraft is the simpler rotor mechanics required for flight control. Unlike single- and double-rotor helicopters which use complex variable pitch rotors whose pitch varies as the blade rotates for flight stability and control, multirotors often use fixed-pitch blades; control of vehicle motion is achieved by varying the relative speed of each rotor to change the thrust and torque produced by each.
Paparazzi is an open-source autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft. Low cost and availability enable hobbyist use in small remotely piloted aircraft. The project began in 2003, and is being further developed and used at École nationale de l'aviation civile (ENAC), a French civil aeronautics academy. Several vendors are currently producing Paparazzi autopilots and accessories.
The Imperial Eagle is an Indian light-weight mini-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment, National Aerospace Laboratories and supported by private vendors. Its primary users will be the National Security Guard and the military services.
ArduPilot is an open source, unmanned vehicle Autopilot Software Suite, capable of controlling autonomous:
MAVLink or Micro Air Vehicle Link is a protocol for communicating with small unmanned vehicle. It is designed as a header-only message marshaling library. MAVLink was first released early 2009 by Lorenz Meier under the LGPL license.
FYseries UAV is a series of Chinese micro air vehicles (MAV) developed by Guilin Feiyu Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. , a Chinese firm traditionally being a subcontractor of subsystems to other major aircraft manufacturers. Feiyu Tech has expanded its business from flight stabilization systems, autopilots, and data radio into UAVs by first venturing into MAV, and FY-X4 Pro QuadCopter and FY-Y6 Scorpion Copter are the result. Both MAVs have been shown as various exhibitions in China for numerous times, and both have been evaluated by local Chinese law enforcement, but it is not clear if they have entered regular service with Chinese military because no official governmental confirmation has been released by Chinese authorities yet.
PX4 autopilot is an open-source autopilot system oriented toward inexpensive autonomous aircraft.
3DR is an American company headquartered in Berkeley, California that makes enterprise drone software for construction, engineering and mining firms, along with government agencies.
Jani Hirvinen is one of the early Finnish IT-technology pioneers. Hirvinen is also one of the first ones developing small private sector professional level UAVs. He is among the top developers of the ArduCopter platform that - together with the included autopilot - changed the way drones are being flown all over the world. He is also the co-founder of famous international unmanned institutions ArduPilot, DIYDrones and DroneCode.
An autonomous aircraft is an aircraft which flies under the control of automatic systems and needs no intervention from a human pilot. Most autonomous aircraft are unmanned aerial vehicle or drones, however autonomous control systems are reaching a point where several air taxis and associated regulatory regimes are being developed.
