Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have seen unprecedented levels of growth during the last decade in both military and civilian domains. However, it is anticipated that civilian applications will be dominant in the future, although there are still barriers to be overcome and technical challenges to be met. For example, integrating UAS into civilian space, fully autonomous navigation, see-detect-and-avoid systems, smart UAS designs, system integration, vision-based navigation, logistics and training, to name but a few areas, will be of prime importance in the near future. This special volume is the outcome of research presented at the International Symposium on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, held in Dubai in June 2010, and presents state-of-the-art findings on topics related to: UAS operations and integration into the national airspace system; UAS navigation and control; micro-, mini-, small UAVs; UAS simulation testbeds and frameworks; UAS research platforms and applications; UAS applications. This book aims at serving as a guide tool on UAS for engineers and practitioners, academics, government agencies and industry.

This is a hardbound spinoff from the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Volume 61:1-4, 2011.