Abstract
In this presentation, the speaker discusses recent innovations in the field of unmanned systems. Specifically, he reviews the commercialization of unmanned air, ground, sea and space vehicles and their increased use in civil applications in comparison to their heavy military use and origins. The new market of unmanned systems education, including advanced engineering degrees, courses, certificates and handbooks, is also explored. Additionally, the speaker reviews the cutting-edge areas of: alternative propulsion systems for UAVs including solar, fuel cell and beamed energy; and alternative navigation systems, including image navigation and ground-based GPS (Locotta), signals of opportunity and cold-atom technology. The speaker's extensive research, experience and passion for unmanned vehicle technology is what moved him to spearhead training for unmanned systems engineers through his launch of the Unmanned Vehicles University. Its graduates will enter the unmanned career field in the areas of R&D, vehicle design, sensor development, vehicle communications and data links, sense-and-avoid systems, human-machine interfaces, autonomous control, vehicle navigation, alternative power and operations.
