The Truth about Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

无人驾驶飞行器(UAV)通过在阿富汗和伊拉克的高调军事部署越来越多地成为头条新闻。然而，普通公众在很大程度上仍然不知道当今民用领域正在发生什么，目前的技术水平是什么，以及一些英国学术和工业团体如何在许多这些新系统和应用的科学和工程开发方面处于世界领先地位。这个项目的目的是消除关于无人机目前能做什么和不能做什么的一些神话，展示关于历史发展、当前技术和应用的信息，以及学术界和工业界计划在研发方面走向何方的细节。这项提议汇集了这一领域的两个国际公认的学术研究小组(他们也有公共参与的经验)，并得到了专注于航空的博物馆/科学中心和行业的大力支持，他们总共为该项目提供了价值超过7.6万美元的实物捐赠。我们打算通过在科学中心开发一系列静态、互动和现场展示来激发公众对我们的研究的兴趣，并激励未来几代研究人员。展品将探索无人机的历史、目前正在飞行的平台、世界领先的英国对无人机民用的研发以及由此产生的系统将如何造福普通民众。我们亦计划让大学教职员在参观最繁忙的期间，在各中心的工地逗留相当于80个人日。工作人员将与公众面对面交流，为公众提供一个向研究人员提问无人机的独特机会，同时使我们能够评估展览的影响和公众的意见。

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly making the headlines through high-profile military deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the general public remains largely unaware of what is going on today in the civilian domain, what the current state of the art is, and how a number of UK academic and industrial groups are leading the world in the scientific and engineering development of many of these new systems and applications. The aim of this project is to dispel some of the myths about what UAVs can and can't currently do, and present information about historical developments, current technology and applications and details of where academia and industry plan to go in terms of research and development.This proposal brings together two internationally recognised academic research groups in this field (who also have experience of public engagement) and is strongly supported by aviation-focussed museums/science centres and industry, who have together offered in-kind contributions worth in excess of 76,000 to the project. We intend to stimulate the public's interest in our research and inspire future generations of researchers by developing a series of static, interactive and live displays at the science centres. The exhibits will explore topics such as the history of UAVs, current platforms that are flying today, the world-leading UK research and development into the civilian use of UAVs and how the resultant systems will benefit the man in the street. We also plan for University staff to spend the equivalent of 80 person-days on site at the centres during the busiest visitor periods. The staff will engage face-to-face with the public, providing a unique opportunity for the public to quiz researchers about UAVs while enabling us to evaluate the impact of the exhibit and the views of the public.