Small to Medium UAVs for Civilian Applications in Indonesia

Abstract

Indonesian government needs a well-built, easy to operate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to perform various civilian missions as UAS are a well-known platform for dirty, dull, and dangerous missions. Hence, the Indonesian government has an organization that performs research and development of UAS, named as Aeronautic Technology Center. This organization is placed underneath Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space. The UAS developments in this institute are primarily driven by civilian uses; therefore, the UAS size, sensor types, and mission payload are optimized for civilian mis- sions. In order to produce the decent to the best quality of the aerial image, which is the essential product for various civilian missions, the UAS regularly flies under the cloud. For this reason, the Aeronautic Technology Center is only developing the LASE (low altitude, short-endurance) and the LALE (low altitude, long endurance) UAS type as of now. The UAS development was begun with LSU-01, followed by LSU-02, LSU-03, and LSU-05. The LSU-01, LSU-02, and LSU-03 are in the operational phase, while the LSU-05 is in the experimental Phase. In this chapter, the specification of the platforms and the sensor capabilities that are relevant with the demands of users in the civilian sector are described.