The CAPECON Program: Civil Applications and Economical Effectivity of Potential UAV Configurations

CAPECON is an acronym for Civil Applications and Economical Effectivity of Potential UAV Configurations. CAPECON is an RTD project submitted to the EC Fifth Program Call, Growth 2001. The Vision of the program is that “Within 10 years UAVs will be operated within Civilian Airspace on behalf of many Civilian & Commercial Missions”. Twenty organizations are participating in the Program, including industries, institutes and universities - from eight European countries. The two most important challenges facing civil operation of UAVs are safety and cost and CAPECON is addressing both of these issues. The main activities of the CAPECON program are the definition and systematic study of three basic UAV concepts: High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE), Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE), and Rotary type. The study of several configurations is being carried out to analyze their suitability for the civil applications identified and their derived requirements. This study and analysis is being evaluated, using the cost model developed within the Program. The project output - expected by the end of April 2005 - will be a set of configurations and technologies, evaluated for safety and cost. The results will form a set of recommendations for the design of safe and cost effective UAVs for civilian use. A comprehensive Roadmap will be established in order to promote the recommendations and the enabling technologies required for realizing them. This paper is based on extensive work performed by members of the CAPECON consortium during the first 28 months of the program. I. Introduction CAPECON is motivated by the vision: “Within 10 years UAVs will be operated within Civilian Airspace on behalf of many Civilian & Commercial Missions” CAPECON is a research project submitted in response to the European Commission Call “Growth 2001”. The project is part of the UAVNET ex-ante cluster, together with a project named USICO, which promotes safety and regulations for the operation of civil UAVs. CAPECON seeks to advance the utilisation of safe and economically viable Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) in the civilian commercial sphere. CAPECON surveys in-depth the applications of potential users, and has already produced some reliable safety and cost assessments. It is a research synthesis of critical technologies, configuration design, simulation and cost appraisal methods, aimed at the design and production of safe and commercially viable, civilian UAVs. The project has concentrated primarily on configurations and technologies suited to HALE (High Altitude, Long Endurance) and MALE (Medium Altitude, Long Endurance) missions but also Rotary UAVs are considered. Currently the commercial potential for the civilian use of UAVs is largely untapped; hence CAPECON potentially enables its partner organisations to gain a leading role in this emerging technology.