An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a

vehicle A vehicle () is a machine designed for self-propulsion, usually to transport people, cargo, or both. The term "vehicle" typically refers to land vehicles such as human-powered land vehicle, human-powered vehicles (e.g. bicycles, tricycles, velo ...

without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicles—which are capable of sensing their environment and navigating on their own. It has been reported that the

armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a ...

of more than 100 countries have approximately 170 different types of drones in service.

Types

There are different types of uncrewed vehicles: * Remote control vehicle (RC), such as radio-controlled cars or

radio-controlled aircraft A radio-controlled aircraft (often called RC aircraft or RC plane) is a small flying machine that is radio controlled by an operator on the ground using a hand-held radio transmitter. The transmitter continuously communicates with a receiver (rad ...

* Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), such as the

autonomous car A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no User input, human input. They are sometimes called robotaxi, robotaxis, though this te ...

s, or unmanned combat vehicles (UCGV) ** Self-driving truck ** Driverless tractor * Unmanned ground and aerial vehicle (UGAV), unmanned vehicle with hybrid locomotion methods *

Unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

(UAV), unmanned

aircraft An aircraft ( aircraft) is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining support from the Atmosphere of Earth, air. It counters the force of gravity by using either Buoyancy, static lift or the Lift (force), dynamic lift of an airfoil, or, i ...

, either

fixed-wing A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using Lift (force), aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft (in which a Helicopter rotor, r ...

or rotorwing, commonly known as "drone" **

Unmanned combat aerial vehicle An unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), also known as a combat drone, fighter drone or battlefield UAV, is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance and carries aircra ...

(UCAV) ** Medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE) ** Miniature UAV (SUAV) ** Delivery drone ** Micro air vehicle (MAV) **

Target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operation ...

* Autonomous spaceport drone ship * Unmanned surface vehicle (USV), also known as "surface drone" or "drone ship", for operations on the surface of the water * Unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV), also known as "underwater drone" or "drone sub", for operations underwater ** Remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROUV) **

Autonomous underwater vehicle An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a robot that travels underwater without requiring continuous input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification tha ...

(AUV) ***

Intervention AUV Intervention AUV or I-AUV is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle. Its characteristic feature is that it is capable of autonomous interventions on the subsea installations, a task usually carried out by remotely operated underwater vehicles ( ...

(IAUV) ***

Underwater glider An underwater glider is a type of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that employs variable-buoyancy propulsion instead of traditional propellers or Underwater thruster, thrusters. It employs variable buoyancy in a similar way to a profiling floa ...

Uncrewed spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which th ...

, both remote controlled ("uncrewed space mission") and autonomous ("

robotic spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which t ...

" or "

space probe Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which th ...

References

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Types

See also

References