Unmanned aircraft systems for communication and atmospheric sensing missions

This paper describes the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles Heterogeneous Unmanned Aircraft System. The unmanned aircraft system is comprised of a fleet of small and miniature unmanned aircraft connected through a multi-tiered, net-centric command and control architecture. Components of the unmanned aircraft system are described, including different airframes, autopilots, ground control stations, payload sensors, and networking middleware. Emphasis is placed on the design of the system for in situ atmospheric sampling and communication applications.