The Camcopter requires minimal maintenance and ground base area and can be flown either manually, via an on-board camera or pre-programmed for unmanned missions
				The Camcopter can
	Brigadier Geoffrey Ransby looks at the advantages of the Schiebel Camcopter, the UAV set to lead the way for the foreseeable future
				If one discounts space rockets – and even their ancestors were well-known to the ancient Chinese and the victors at Waterloo – the modern airplane in any of its forms and task configurations changed very little during the past century. True it flies faster and farther and can carry many people and very large payloads, but its basic means of propulsion, control surfaces and take-off and landing procedures certainly would be recognisable to the Wright brothers, and probably to Leonardo Da Vinci. And Leonardo would have no problem in recognising the Schiebel Camcopter and in immediately understanding its huge potential for so many diverse tasks. What initially might perplex the pioneers of flight is the massive move, achieved almost entirely in the past decade, to computer-enhanced flight control and planning systems, and the increasing use of digitised and micro-sized aids and sensors with huge power and capacity. Add to the equation the accuracy of DGPS data links using highly reliable ground relay or satellite stations and components with MTBF rates, often measured in hundreds of thousands of hours, and we have a scenario in which low cost and highly capable and flexible UAVs offer possibilities too exciting to quantify. The present Almost without exception, UAVs or RPVs have all suffered a poor reputation for reliability and effectiveness; the scrapyards of the world are littered with the failures of countless drawing- board ideas. Not so Camcopter, developed over the past three years by Schiebel GmbH in Austria, that has from its initial flight notched up an impressive list of achievements, new applications and tasks. At the same time it has established a reputation for ease of operation and safety hitherto unknown in the UAV world. From its first simple concept – as an aid to major humanitarian de-mining operations – it has quickly developed to the point where it can demonstrate impressive performance as a surveillance vehicle, with the full gambit of TI, IR, radar and ground penetrating radar, standard video links, laser designation and NBC and other specialist monitor fits. Add a host of others roles linked to commercial, military and government agency requirements and at last you have a system that can satisfy the customer both on cost and effectiveness. Very small is very beautiful Camcopter is a prime example of why small is beautiful. It is comparatively cheap to buy and operate, simple to fly and easy to maintain. It can be deployed rapidly in just one standard 4x4 vehicle, for example a Toyota Land Cruiser, or by air or small patrol boat to its operational area. It needs little back-up, few men to maintain almost continuous operations, and a ground base area measured in single figure square metres. And it achieves its many tasks through advanced computer-controlled flight and data systems and a host of miniaturised sensors, all well within its payload capacity, providing real time data by day and night in any weather. The developing maritime role for Camcopter and its added ability to deploy a wide variety of aids for such agencies as police and customs, together with its use for such missions as environmental monitoring and gas and oil installation survey, exemplifies what simple but clever VTOL UAVs can now achieve. And with every day that passes, new sensors and systems are developed that expand the potential use of UAVs by a factor of two or more. Already the NBC monitoring system fitted to Camcopter is no larger than a packet of 20 cigarettes and, more impressively, it also can detect someone smoking that pack at a considerable distance! Camcopter can be flown by its armchair-based pilot, safe in his bunker or hotel room, using an onboard pilot camera, or pre-programmed to visit up to 750 way-points. Its mission can be amended or changed at any time. A current duration of approximately five hours at 90kph, provides the ability to lurk awaiting the illegal border incursion, or to sit hull down behind a ridge happily designating target after target while smart munitions destroy the enemy who remains oblivious to its presence. Negligible mission-failure rate Lose the data link and Camcopter acts to recover that signal, and if that fails, automatically returns to base. Mission failure rate is negligible and with instant cut down and a small flight danger area it can operate over built-up areas and in direct support of ground-based troops. By using fly-by-wire techniques and well-proven components, Camcopter is extremely safe. The operator cannot give a direct command that will hazard the airframe. The full in-built instrumentation, repeated at the monitor, DGPS to provide its location to an accuracy of less than a metre, and fail-safe systems designed to recover the airframe despite pilot error, the UAV will fly safely in the most demanding of conditions. Already it forms part of a number of advanced programmes worldwide and is scheduled to enter service in eight countries within the next 12 months. Despite the disappointment of being unable to hover seven feet above the ground that would enable paratroopers to be deployed by stealth to their targets, Camcopter will of course continue to improve. For example, the development of power units and smaller, more powerful generators will enable us to deploy a range of sensors and application systems that makes the 1999 vintage look more Wright Brothers than Concorde. The future The future is one of highly capable and safe VTOL UAVs, deployed in a myriad of tasks, saving time, money and effort. This will prove a major advance to anything seen to date, affording everything from simple real-time surveillance and view-over- the-hill abilities craved by military forward commanders, to the constant, reliable monitoring of major projects, including environmental disasters as well as the roles already outlined. The results will be better than anything envisaged, even ten years ago, and will be produced quicker, cheaper and in an easier to understood format. Even the most hazardous task will not put the crew at risk, allowing the project controller to use a manned aircraft for a vital but dangerous mission. In Chernobyl, for instance, Camcopter would have provided faster, more accurate information on the situation than any ground- based team. And if the airframe were heavily contaminated it could be sacrificed once the mission was completed, the cost being significantly less than the hospitalisation of ground monitors sent to wander the site. Designed to succeed The Camcopter airframe needs little or no further development, except to benefit from new materials offering lightness and strength. It is also environmentally friendly because of its low noise level and matching fuel consumption. It can accommodate all the essential sensors and aids available now, and certainly the smaller, lighter and more capable systems that will arrive on the market during the next decade. During the next few years we will see the rapid, large-scale introduction of UAVs in a multitude of situations. By far and away the most versatile and clever UAV applications are only attainable by a VTOL system. It is exciting to ponder the next ten years. Already we are working on new applications in the field of de-mining, anti-drug operations, border control and environmental protection schemes. Add digital mapping, survey, land and crop management and the many tasks requiring access to difficult sites, and you have a system that will be so commonplace in the coming decade that we will wonder why it took so long to reach maturity. It’s nearly 100 years since the Wright Brothers – but now Schiebel is making up for lost time! © >>>>> www >>>>> Schiebel Camcopter
	"Even the pioneers of flight would recognise the Schiebel Camcopter’s potential for so many tasks"
	"Potential applications for the Camcopter include border surveillance, anti-drug tasks, crop management, disaster monitoring and de-mining as well as military operations"