An Unmanned (pardon the gender inappropriateness – there is just no way to introduce a gender neutral word here) Vehicle is one that does not have a driver or pilot in the vehicle. Thus an Unmanned Vehicle may be “remotely piloted” – RPAS or Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems are an example of an RPAS. These are usually what people mean when they talk about “Drones”.
An Autonomous Vehicle can travel through an environment intelligently and autonomously i.e. without the need for any human intervention. They often have collision detection and other features to navigate independently of human pilots.They may fly on preplanned routes or they may make autonomous decisions to change routes in the service of a goal. For example, some “Drones” are designed to recognize certain chemical markers in terrain and scout for minerals – these kinds of drones are used in Mining.
Both, Autonomous and Unmanned vehicles include those that travel on Ground, Air or Water (and even combinations of these such as Amphibious Drones). There is no doubt that these kinds of vehicles can be used in various activities that are useful for mankind. It is also clear that such Vehicles are going to be commonly available and used in the very near future.
To help the growth of the ecosystem in the space of Unmanned & Autonomous vehicles, several Industry veterans & subject matter experts came together to form Unmanned & Autonomous Vehicles Association of India – UAVAI and the entity was registered on 28th Nov’2017.
