Present state and future prospect of autonomous control technology for industrial drones

This article includes of a technical and general discussion about a future prospective of flying robot. Drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) should be evolving to real and bio‐inspired flying robots. The concept of guidance, navigation and control is first explained and defined. Next, the autonomy (safety) class of drones, future roadmaps, and a correlation diagram between the flight level of drone and autonomy (safety) will be described, and a fault‐tolerant control system is introduced. Finally, the ideal state of autonomous control in the near future and realization of autonomy, as well as top‐level autonomy as Class A by a supervisor (guidance system), will be defined. © 2019 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.