Editorial

Citation

Budiyono, A. (2013), "Editorial", International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Vol. 1 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijius.2013.60401baa.001

Editorial

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems, Volume 1, Issue 2.

There have been predictions that by 2030-2040, unmanned systems would govern virtually any aspect of human’s everyday life. Even today, we already witnessed prevalent applications ranging from satellite probing the deep space, underwater robots surveying the sea bottom, UAVs roaming the sky for various scientific mission and ground robots penetrating hazardous areas inaccessible by human.

The second issue of the International Journal of Intelligent Unmanned Systems (IJIUS) represents a special issue largely featuring select papers from the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Unmanned Systems held in Singapore in October 22-24, 2013. The first paper by Chen et al. presents the survey on autonomous localization and mapping of AUVs. The paper outlined the two key elements in underwater localization and mapping for AUVs, namely sensors and algorithms. Various sensors used for AUVs were reviewed in terms of basic working principle, characters, the advantages and disadvantages of these sensors. A variety of algorithms used for underwater localization and mapping were explained according to their application situations, advantages and limitations. Additionally, 35 AUV platforms were statistically analyzed based on the application circumstances of sensors and algorithms that were practically used. The second paper by Hino and Tsuchiya was focussed formation organization of unmanned aerial vehicles using polygonal envelopes. The method was characterized by the use of two envelopes, which visualized the selection process, making it easy for operators to take over the selection process if necessary, while assuring that the topology selected by the method will always be feasible and efficient. The third paper by Hao et al. presents the study of aerodynamic and stability characteristics of NACA4412 under the influence of ground effects. Both a panel method and a finite volume method were employed to analyze the aerodynamic and stability characteristic. The study showed that when viscous effects are taken into account, the aerodynamic center of height of the NACA4412 airfoil moved further forwards due to boundary layer de-cambering effects. The paper by Ding et al. proposed the application of extended Kalman filtering (EKF) to autonomous formation flight of small UAV system. The leader motion estimator (LME) to estimate the relative navigation information of the leader aircraft was designed and flight tested. The LME utilized the EKF method to predict the relative position, relative velocity and attitude of the leader aircraft when the communication problem occurred. The study demonstrated based on the flight test that the designed LME worked properly under real environment. The paper by Miwa et al. investigates a quad ducted-fan helicopter configuration to alleviate the risk of rotor blade. Based on hovering and auto cruise tests, the study showed that except endurance the overall flight performance of quad ducted-fan helicopter is almost the same as that of quad rotor helicopter.

In closing, on behalf of IJIUS editorial board, it is our express wish all the readers find this special issue from ICIUS2012 interesting and useful reading.

Agus Budiyono