Semi-Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Video Platform (P-0391) (MFN 2673)

Abstract

The advent of modern-day technologies has enabled mankind to monitor the lands from the skies through vehicles that do not need to be controlled by a pilot on board. The invention might seem new but the idea for such vehicles emerged during the time of Archimedes who perfected the principle of the rotating screw to be used as means to pull a liquid from a surface and push it up through the spiral path. This is in fact the same principle that is used by any modern-day rotor based air vehicle, more commonly known as a ‘Helicopter’, only in this case the liquid is replaced by a fluid, the air, and the mechanism is inversed to pull the air from above and push it downwards in order to create the lift off effect. UAV stands for ‘Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’. They are also referred to as drones, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) or Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs). The basic function of an unmanned aerial vehicle is to operate without a human pilot. They find their application in military and a number of other fields especially in scenarios where the presence of a human/pilot is either totally unnecessary or the risk of sending a human pilot in the field is unacceptable. 1.1 APPLICATIONS OF UAVS