Review
Multiple-Scenario Unmanned Aerial System Control:
A Systems Engineering Approach and Review of
Existing Control Methods
Christopher M. Eaton *, Edwin K. P. Chong and Anthony A. Maciejewski
Received: 14 November 2015 ; Accepted: 25 December 2015 ; Published: 4 January 2016
Academic Editor: Javaan Chahl
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University, Fort Collins,
CO 80523-1373, USA; Edwin.Chong@colostate.edu (E.K.P.C.); aam@colostate.edu (A.A.M.)
* Correspondence: eatonc@rams.colostate.edu
Abstract: The use of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in both the public and military environments
is predicted to grow significantly. As the demand for UASs grows, the availability of more robust
and capable vehicles that can perform multiple mission types will be needed. In the public sector,
the demand will grow for UASs to be used for agriculture, forestry, and search and rescue missions.
Militaries continue to demand more UAS capabilities for diverse operations around the world.
Significant research has been performed and continues to progress in the areas of autonomous UAS
control. A majority of the work focuses on subsets of UAS control: path planning, autonomy, small
UAS controls, and sensors. Minimal work exists on a system-level problem of multiple-scenario
UAS control for integrated systems. This paper provides a high-level modular system architecture
definition that is modifiable across platform types and mission requirements. A review of the current
research and employment of UAS capabilities is provided to evaluate the state of the capabilities
required to enable the proposed architecture.
Keywords: Unmanned Aerial System (UAS); autonomous systems; UAS control; path planning;
system architecture; Multi-UAS control; collision avoidance; multi-scenario UAS control
1. Introduction
In July 2014, the Teal group predicted that worldwide Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs)
expenditures will grow to over $11 Billion per year with a total investment of over $91 Billion by
2024. It is expected that 86% of the market will be military and 14% will be in the civil market [1,2].
As the growth continues, challenges and expectations will continue to rise as users will expect more
robust and capable vehicles. The military market continues to expand and develop new capabilities
and requirements. The growth in the civil market is expected to significantly expand as the rules
on civil use of UASs in the US and around the world become better defined. As these markets
expand, the need to have systems that can adapt to new missions, sensors, and environments will
drive requirements.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) released a Broad Agency
Announcement (BAA) for the Collaborative Operations in a Denied Environment (CODE) Program
in 2014 [3]. This BAA defines numerous requirements and expectations for future system capability
of unmanned and autonomous vehicles working as single systems and multiple vehicle teams.
Many of the requirements defined in the CODE BAA can be utilized to define system architecture
and capabilities for both military and civilian systems. These requirements will provide a significant
portion of the requirements for the system defined herein. In early 2014, DARPA also released a BAA
for Distributed Battlespace Management (DBM) that proposes a series of automated and autonomous
Aerospace 2016, 3, 1; doi:10.3390/aerospace3010001 www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace
