1. 1 Background The basis for the material in this book centers around research done in an ongoing long-term project which focuses on the development of highly au- 1 tonomousunmannedaerialvehiclesystems. Theactualplatformwhichserves as a case study for the research in this book will be described in detail later in this chapter. Before doing that, a brief background of the motivations - hind this research will be provided. One of the main research...