Welcome to the first edition of the UAVNET newsletter, whose purpose is to promote the advancement of civil UAV activity in Europe.

1. Inaugural Meeting

A successful inaugural meeting of the UAVNET thematic network was held on the 23rd / 24th October 2001 in Sweden. Thirty participants from about twenty organisations representing some ten countries, attended the meeting.

The programs of two research projects were presented at the meeting:

i) USICO - Whose objective is to improve the safety of UAVs and enable their integration within civilian airspace.

ii) CAPECON - Whose objective is to investigate new directions for future UAV development. In this context seven new aircraft configurations for civil applications will be defined, including HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance), MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) and ROTARY UAVs.

The above activities will form a foundation for jointly developing a European capabilty for civil UAVs.

The discussions at the inaugural meeting included a review of the global state-of -the-art with respect to UAVs; a review of potential spheres of use with an emphasis on scientific applications; and various approaches to safety and certification.

UAVNET members plan to meet every three months to exchange views on a broad spectrum of topics covering all aspects of UAVs for civil applications.

An agenda of the inaugural meeting appears below, and papers presented at the meeting are available for review in the Document library

2. Our Vision

We believe that within 10 years, affordable UAVs will be developed for civil operations which will include

• Monitoring environment - mineral exploration, meteorology, wildlife, pollution, mapping
• Monitoring disaster areas - forest fires, floods, avalanches, nuclear contaminated areas
• Communications relays - news broadcasts, disaster relief, sports events
• Scientific research - atmosphere, land surface, ocean
• Law enforcement - road traffic, coastal surveillance, drug control

This development will be brought about by the synthesis of UAV technologies to ensure a high degree of safety, facilitating the integration of UAVs within the Air Traffic Control system. These affordable, high performance UAV systems, will be operated economically by new types of enterprises.

To achieve this capability, critical technologies must be developed in the following spheres:

• Safety of Air vehicles & Propulsion
• Avionics & Communications
• Sensors & Payloads
• Operational concepts

Consequently, a civil UAV technology program (TP) should be implemented in order to prepare an infrastructure for major industrial activity in development, manufacturing and operating civil UAVs.

What are the use and benefits of Civilian UAVs ? Many of the missions listed above can be performed efficiently only by UAVs, whilst others have an economic advantage compared to alternative means. These and many other applications will create new market potential.

How does this strengthen the competitiveness of European Industry ? UAV activity worldwide is currently in a state of acceleration, and is likely to experience very high growth within the next ten years. European industry is a beginner in the field of UAV development with an emphasis on military applications. UAV activity in the military field has created a technological foundation and produces reliable systems which have great potential for civil applications. However, additional research and development particular to the civilian sphere is required

• Development of technologies for increasing performance
• Higher safety standards
• Integration of UAVs with other air traffic
• New operational concepts for civil certification
• Cost reduction

3.UAVNET Meeting in Stockholm Sweden Agenda