No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover design: VTeX UAB, Lithuania Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) To my family, and the friends who have helped me retain my sanity over the years. Konstantinos Dalamagkidis To Stellitsa and Panoulis, my kids. Kimon P. Valavanis Dedicated to my loving wife, Kae.Almost two years have passed since the publication of the first edition of the book you are holding. During this time a lot has been accomplished and many things have changed. Nevertheless, there are many that will argue that what has been done is still not enough. It has been a year since the small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) rulemaking committee submitted its recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration and although its term ended in the end of 2009, no term extension was given up until the time these lines are written and no policy is expected to be available before 2013. Moreover, certification of civilian UAS in the restricted category is not expected before 2015 and routine access to the NAS for at least five years after that. The challenges identified two years ago, largely remain. Sense and avoid remains an important issue, as is communications latency, security and reliability. It is still not possible to fly in the National Airspace with similar procedures and/or restrictions as those that are currently in effect for manned aviation. The gap in UAS regulation remains, albeit there are signs from all over the world that this is starting to close. Regardless, one must also consider another gap that exists between the civilian market and universities, research centers and companies developing the UAS of the future. Although there are several civilian applications enumerated in the literature, the civilian market seems mostly oblivious to the benefits of incorporating UAS in its business. There are several reasons for this: UAS are still seen as immature technology; the partners that develop this technology are segregated from the actual civilian market; the lack of regulation lowers interest in UAS, which in turn reduces the pressure for developing regulation faster. In fact, FAA predicts that commercial activities will begin only in 2018 and expects that no extraordinary demand will bring about a quicker introduction of UAS in the NAS.On the other hand, at any given moment there are over 30 UAS flying over Iraq and Afghanistan, many operated via satellite from the other side of the globe. All together, 135,000 hours were flown by UAS, over these two countries in 2009 alone and the one million cumulative flight hours mark has already been reached. Several UAS are also ...