The Department of Aeronautical Engineering at Tampere University of Applied Sciences aspires to be a part of the oncoming network of UAV technology developers. The network will be based on a survey carried out by the working group ILO of the Finnish Defence and Aviation Association. In order to make the networking more achievable for TAMK, the Department of Aeronautical Engineering suggested this thesis to concentrate on making a survey concerning UAV technology. This UAV survey consists of a UAV technology study and an introduction to TAMK’s UAV project. In order to cover a wider field, these separate subjects were decided to be gathered in one report.

Hereby this thesis consists of two main units. In the first unit a UAV technology survey is carried out. The survey is a theory based study concentrating on the history of UAV technology, on the trends of modern UAV-technology and on the challenges that the growth of UAV technology sets on civil aviation.

The second unit covers an introduction to TAMK’s UAV project. Two tasks were appointed to the UAV project: air sample collecting and thermal video monitoring. The goal of this unit is to clarify what kind of an aircraft would be most suitable to complete these tasks. Once the most suitable UAV aircraft is chosen, a design plan for its manufacturing will be prepared.

At the end of the thesis, in unit three, the two main units were brought together. This unit reports the conclusions of the thesis and introduces ideas for future development for the TAMK’s UAV project. The unit gathers the positive influences of the thesis and presents some ideas on how TAMK could start networking with other UAV technology developers.

The first main unit was a success. It managed to give a clear overview on UAV technology, and therefore provides an excellent basis for future studies. The second main unit provides a justified clarification of UAV-aircrafts. Based on this clarification, a quadrotor rotorcraft was chosen as the aircraft for TAMK’s UAV project. A well-defined design plan was prepared for the quadrotor. This plan could be rapidly deployed if needed, and the budget was kept low as was planned. In the end a proposal was made for the future development of TAMK’s UAV projects and for increasing networking with other UAV developers. Based on these ideas, the UAV technology could become a sustainable field of study with long lasting ideas of development for TAMK.