- Author
- Cordiana, S. | Harrison, R. T.
- Title
- Remotely Piloted Vehicles.
- Coporate
- Forest Service, San Dimas, CA
- Report
- Forest Service Report 9057; TEO1P12, October 1990, 23 p.
- Keywords
- aircraft performance | helicopters | manual control | life support systems
- Identifiers
- Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs); manned surveillance systems
- Abstract
- This report presents information on Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs), which are sometimes proposed for manned surveillance systems in the USDA Forest Service. RPVs appear to be an attractive tool because their use eliminates risk to human safety. It has been speculated that, compared to similar manned systems, which require human-oriented equipment such as seats, instruments, manual controls, and life-support systems, they should be low cost. Data shown in this report will demonstrate that this is not so. They also use more fuel-efficient engines, do not require a pilot to operate them, do not need local airfields, and, using radar equipment, have the ability to overcome the restraints that smoke, haze, and moisture impose on the surveillance electronics. In the past, the military has played a significant role in deterring interest in RPVs, saying that they are unreliable, inaccurate, and inferior in performance to piloted aircraft. Therefore, RPV development has been given low priority in the United States. One obvious drawback is that although RPVs can be programmed to reac to certain situations, the number of programmable situations is limited. Humans have the ability to use analogy to make decisions about situations they have never experienced, but simulating this intelligence in a computer is difficult, and expensive, if not impossible. RPVs are also susceptible to inertial navigation errors, and deployment can be difficult compared to manned systems.