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Unit of study_
AERO5750: Unmanned Air Vehicle Systems
2025 unit information
Objectives/Expected Outcomes: To develop specialist knowledge and understanding of Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) systems. To be able to assess, evaluate and perform preliminary design analysis on complete UAV systems. Syllabus summary: This course will focus on understanding UAVs from a system perspective. It will consider a variety of key UAV subsystems and look at how these interact to determine the overall effectiveness of a particular UAV system for a given mission. Based on this understanding it will also look at the evaluation and design of a complete UAV system for a given mission specification. Some of the primary UAV subsystems that will be considered in this course are as follows. Airframe and Propulsion: The role of the basic airframe/propulsion subsystem of the UAV in setting operational mission bounds for different classes of UAVs, from micro UAVs, through to larger vehicles. Flight Control and Avionics: Typical UAV primary flight control systems; Sensor requirements to support different levels of operation (eg auto-land vs remote-control landing etc. ,); Redundancy requirements. Navigation: Navigation requirements; inertial navigation; aiding via use of GPS; strategies to combat GPS failures. Typical Payloads: Electro-Optical (EO); Infra-Red (IR); Electronic Warfare (EW); Electronic Surveillance (ES); Radar and others. Payload stabilization and pointing accuracy requirements. Air-Ground Communication Link: Typical Civilian and Military communication links. Range, Security, Bandwidth, Cost issues. Ground Control Station(GCS): Air-vehicle monitoring; payload monitoring; data dissemination; control of multiple vehicles. The course will also consider other general issues associated with modern UAV systems including multi-vehicle systems, certification of UAV systems and others. As part of the course students will spend 1 day operating a UAV system, with their own mission guidance/mission control software on board.
Unit details and rules
Managing faculty or University school:
Engineering
| Study level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Academic unit | Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic |
| Credit points | 6 |
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Prerequisites:
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[(AERO3260 or AERO8260 or AERO9260) and (AERO3360 or AERO8360 or AERO9360) and (AERO2460 or AERO3460 or AERO8460 or AERO9460) and (AERO3560 or AERO8560 or AERO9560)] or equivalent study at another institution |
|---|---|
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Corequisites:
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None |
| Prohibitions:
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None |
| Assumed knowledge:
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AERO1560, AERO1400, AMME2700, (AERO2460 or AERO3460), AERO3560, AERO3260, AERO3261 and AERO4460 |
At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:
- LO1. Self-learning from open source resources.
- LO2. Develop specialist knowledge and understanding of UAV systems.
- LO3. Develop skills to assess, evaluate and perform preliminary design analysis on complete UAV systems.
- LO4. Interact with team members in class to communicate and integrate individual work towards required UAV system
- LO5. Communicate project achievements using through written reports and oral presentation.
- LO6. Develop the ability to work as a member of a team and to take responsibility for the meeting of project goals and completion of project sub-tasks. Communicate with team members to negotiate strategies to satisfy project requirements.
Unit availability
This section lists the session, attendance modes and locations the unit is available in. There is a unit outline for each of the unit availabilities, which gives you information about the unit including assessment details and a schedule of weekly activities.
The outline is published 2 weeks before the first day of teaching. You can look at previous outlines for a guide to the details of a unit.
| Session | MoA ? | Location | Outline ? |
|---|---|---|---|
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Semester 1 2025
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Normal day | Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney |
Outline unavailable
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Modes of attendance (MoA)
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Important enrolment information
Departmental permission requirements
If you see the ‘Departmental Permission’ tag below a session, it means you need faculty or school approval to enrol. This may be because it’s an advanced unit, clinical placement, offshore unit, internship or there are limited places available.
You will be prompted to apply for departmental permission when you select this unit in Sydney Student.
Read our information on departmental permission.
Additional advice
This unit requires departmental permission to ensure appropriate foundational knowledge is met. If the assumed knowledge was completed at the University of Sydney, your request will be approved without supporting documentation being required. If you have completed studies at another institution, you must include your transcript when submitting your permission request for review by the Faculty.
