The highly dynamic nature, uncertainty and complexity of the flight environment compose the main challenges to the design of autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Recent advances in artificial intelligence and high performance computing technologies provide an opportunity for the further development of autonomous UAS. This work introduces the definition and connotation of autonomous control of UAS, summarizes the state of the art technology in this field, and proposes candidate solutions to the main challenges from the perspectives of IQ, EQ and AQ.

unmanned aerial systems  /  autonomous control  /  artificial intelligence  /  multi-aircraft cooperation  /  fault-tolerant control