At the end of the curricular unit, students will be able to:

LO1. Identify and compare advanced sensing technologies (LiDAR, multispectral and hyperspectral cameras), understanding their principles, limitations, and calibration requirements for UAV payload integration.

LO2. Explain the fundamentals of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) radar, including Stripmap and Spotlight modes, and apply basic SAR processing and multisensor fusion techniques to obtain imagery under adverse conditions.

LO3. Apply advanced GNSS navigation methods using multi constellation receivers and centimetre level positioning (RTK/PPK), and operate in GNSS denied environments using INS, SLAM, and computer vision based navigation.

LO4. Design and evaluate UAV communication architectures, including C2 over 4G/5G networks, BVLOS operational requirements, and mesh based redundant and fault tolerant communication systems.

LO5. Assess satellite communication technologies (Iridium, Starlink, Inmarsat), analysing antennas, link budget, latency, and handover, and design hybrid satellite–terrestrial architectures for different mission types.

LO6. Analyse emerging trends in autonomous aerial systems (swarms, multi UAS coordination, UAM, automated aerial logistics) and apply embedded AI (detection, planning, autonomy, edge computing) to realistic operational scenarios.

LO7. Integrate sensing, communication and navigation components within a systems engineering perspective, demonstrating the ability to design, implement, and validate complete solutions for increasingly complex autonomous UAV missions.