Introduction

Although unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are now commonly employed for tasks that do not require interactions with the environment and other vehicles, such as collecting images and videos, these vehicles are not yet employed in more complex tasks as it would have been envisioned a decade ago. The reasons for this state-of-the-art are numerous, and mostly to be sought in the need for advanced guidance, navigation, and control systems that enable autonomy in complex, dynamic environments. In this chapter, we briefly outline some key aspects of the state of UAV technology. Successively, by providing the outline of this book, we explain in what directions research has been steered to address key shortcomings of UAVs for civilian applications.