Chapter 6Application Challenges from a Bird's-Eye View
Davide Scaramuzza
Robotics and Perception Group, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
6.1 Introduction to Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs)
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. The international civil aviation organization (ICAO) of the United Nations classifies UAVs into two types: (i) autonomous aircrafts and (ii) remotely piloted aircrafts. UAVs were initially conceived for military applications, but in recent years we have witnessed also a growing number of civil applications, such as law enforcement and firefighting, security and surveillance, agriculture, aerial photography, inspection, and search and rescue.
6.1.1 Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs)
The term micro aerial vehicle (MAV) means a miniature UAV that is less than 1 m in size and below 2 kg in weight. Some MAVs can even be as small as a few centimeters and weigh only a few grams (cf. Ma et al. (2013) and Troiani et al. (2013)).
MAVs can be seen as the logical extension of ground mobile robots. Their ability to fly allows them to easily avoid obstacles on the ground and to have an excellent bird's-eye view. MAVs can be classified into rotorcrafts (or rotary wing), fixed or flapping wing, or hybrid (cf. Figure 6.1).
Figure 6.1 A few examples of MAVs. From left to right: the senseFly eBee, the ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month, and much more.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
