PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
February 2016
89
BOOK
REVIEW
Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft
Systems
Edited by R. Barnhart, S. Hottman, D. Marshall,
E. Shappee, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis
2012, 215 pp., ISBN 978-1-4398-3520-3 (hardcover), $67.96
Reviewed by
Petros Patias, Professor, School
of Rural & Surveying Engineering, Faculty of
Engineering, The Aristotle University, Thessaloniki,
Greece.
The book comprises a total of 12 chapters, contributed by 13
top experts in the fields of aviation, aeronautics, control and
information systems, and engineering.
The editors of the book are professors of Aviation and
Unmanned Aircraft Systems research at the Kansas State and
the New Mexico State Universities.
In a highly dynamic and constantly evolving as the UAS
industry, the book aims at identifying and surveying the basic
fundamentals of UAS operations, and as such, it can serve as
textbook for introductory collegiate courses in UASs.
Written from a non-engineering civilian operational
perspective, the book starts with the history of UASs and
continues with the presentation of current technology and
what to be expected in the future. Covering all facets of UAS
elements and operation, as well as the safety procedures and
human factors, it gives the reader a practical understanding of
what it takes to safely operate UASs.
Chapter 1 “History” details the history of UAS, especially
from a point of view of military applications.
Chapter 2 “Unmanned Aircraft System Elements” describes
the UAS elements: Command and Control, Communication,
Payload, Launch, Human element. The aim is to quickly
introduce the reader to the operational issues of UAS use.
Chapter 3 “U.S. Aviation Regulatory System” focuses on a
hot issue, which is quite essential for the industry to grow and
evolve in an orderly fashion. It describes in detail the existing
aviation regulatory systems in U.S. and internationally. It
describes the standards and regulations and identifies the
existing gaps with respect to UAS.
Chapter 4 “Certificate of Authorization Process” and
Chapter 5 “Unmanned Aircraft System Operations” continue
on the previous chapter and studies the certification procedure
for authorization in UAS operation. FAA administration
procedures and airworthiness certification is presented, since
the integration of UAS into the national airspaces seems to be
a critical factor for the growth of the UAS industry.
Chapter 6 “Unmanned Aircraft Systems for Geospatial Data”
provides a brief summary of sensors used on board a variety of
UAS and for different applications. Subsequently, applications
of UAS in environmental monitoring and management
(precision agriculture, rangeland, ocean and coastal research,
contaminant spills and pollution), traffic sensing and disaster
response (fires, floods, hurricanes, tornados) are reviewed.
Chapter 7 “Automation and Autonomy inUnmanned Aircraft
Systems” is a comprehensive review of human-centric and
techno-centric taxonomies and types and levels of automation
and introduces the reader to the concepts of design and
functional issues of UAS automation. In a highly theoretical
manner, it reviews issues like trade-off between operator
workload and operator situation awareness, the importance of
system-operator communication, and the system reliability on
operator trust.
Chapter 8 “Safety Assessments” examines several safety
tools and techniques, such as hazard analysis and its various
forms. It also covers the risk assessment process and provides
some guidance on developing a risk assessment tool. Finally,
it looks at safety evaluations and provides some thoughts on
UAS accident investigation considerations.
To safely operate UAS in the National Airspace System, traffic
alert and collision avoidance is mandatory, at least to a level of a
manned aircraft. Chapter 9 “Detect, Sense and Avoid” addresses
the issue by analyzing the existing technology in both cooperative
and non-cooperative aircrafts. Cooperative technologies include
the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) and
continued on page 92
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 82, No. 2, February 2016, pp. 89–92.
0099-1112/16/89–92
© 2015 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.83.2.89
