Experience in Desingning Autonomous Airplane

In this paper we present experience gathered in our work on UAV design. UAVs (Unmanned Autonomous, or Aerial Vehicles) are radio controlled flying vehicles, e.g. airplanes equipped with RF communication systems, cameras and sensors (e.g. accelerometers, gyros, temperature and pressure sensors, a GPS module etc.) enabling to be capable of autonomous flight. Currently UAVs are mostly used in the military area to safely watch areas of potential risk without endangering the lives of people otherwise needed to provide information on such areas. Lately UAVs have begun to make their way into civil applications as well. Possible uses include monitoring of forest fires, following fleeing suspects by the police, scanning of ground surface to create maps on a local level and so on, or simply for fun.