COMETS addresses the development of innovative real-time distributed control
systems and autonomous system coordination that could be used in many applications
with important economic impact such as vehicles and transportation.
The UAV market is currently serviced by more than 50 manufacturers with over
150 aircraft designs. All of the UAV industry is poised to enter the commercial
UAV market.
Today the UAV market is segmented in military applications (surveillance,
target acquisition, combat aircraft, target drones) and civil applications
(aerial photography, video productions, surveillance, weather and atmospheric
monitoring, weather and atmospheric monitoring, and others). However, the
applications are currently in a process of diversification. According to Frost
and Sullivan, there is a long list of UAV applications and the following market
segments can be identified:
- Military: Surveillance, Target Acquisition, Real Time Battle Field Command
Observation, Combat Aircraft, Target Drones, Logistical Supply and Combat
Re-supply, Organic Ground Combat Support, Battle Damage Assessment, Search and
Rescue, Fire Fighting, Non-lethal weapons (High Power Microwave), Chemical and
Biological Warfare, Chemical/Biological/Nuclear Remote sensing, Monitoring and
Early Warning, Rapid Smoke Camouflage Disbursement.
- Civil Government: Surveillance, Border Patrol, Law Enforcement, Weather and
Atmospheric Monitoring, Disaster Relief, Emergency Communications Relay, Airborne
Early Warning (storms, terrorist attacks, chemical/biological/nuclear).
- Civil State and Local: Law Enforcement (particularly rural), Fire Fighting,
Search and Rescue, Highway/Road Monitoring, Weather, Aerial Surveying.
- Commercial: Agriculture, Commercial Fishing, Package Delivery (FEDX/UPS),
Merchant Marine & Shipping, Petroleum, News/media, Railway/Pipeline/Power
line Monitoring, High Value/Risk Surveillance, Commercial Security, Aerial
Surveying, Telecommunications, Internet (real time video and telemetry
downlinks to the Internet for news, media, sports, science and industry
applications).
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