structural:reformatting
Autonomy

The level of autonomy in UAVs varies widely. UAV manufacturers often build in specific autonomous operations, such as:

One approach to quantifying autonomous capabilities is based on OODA terminology, as suggested by a 2002 US Air Force Research Laboratory report, and used in the table on the right.

Full autonomy is available for specific tasks, such as airborne refueling or ground-based battery switching.

Other functions available or under development include; collective flight, real-time collision avoidance, wall following, corridor centring, simultaneous localization and mapping and swarming, cognitive radio and machine learning. In this context, computer vision can play an important role for automatically ensuring flight safety.