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Background and Motivation

Drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), represent an innovative category of aircraft that utilize autopilot systems and route planning to achieve precision control over fixed-wing and rotary-wing platforms. In recent years, multi-rotor drones have spearheaded industrial transformation by performing complex tasks across various sectors. UAVs play a critical role in current and future national defense while being widely applied in civilian sectors—such as aerial mapping, crop growth monitoring, agricultural spraying, disaster search and rescue, scientific research, logistics, and entertainment. This aligns with the "National Defense and Strategic Industries" category under Taiwan’s Six Core Strategic Industries, while also intersecting with the "Information and Digital" and "Civid and Preparedness" industrial sectors.
UAVs are extensively utilized in defense, commerce, and government land management, most notably for military missions like border surveillance. They are also highly relevant to "New Agriculture" and "AI Innovation" projects. Operating UAVs requires high professional expertise. The integration of emerging technologies—such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), advanced sensing and obstacle avoidance systems, and cloud computing—has significantly enhanced UAV capabilities, enabling automated takeoff, navigation, data collection, transmission, analysis, and landing.
According to market forecasts by MarketsandMarkets, total UAV shipments in 2021 reached 67.9 million units with a market value of $27.4 billion USD, which is projected to grow to $584 billion USD by 2026, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.4%. Furthermore, an "Industrial Benefit Evaluation Report on UAV Talent Cultivation" commissioned by our university and conducted by the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) estimates that the demand for new UAV R&D engineers in Taiwan from 2021 to 2023 will be 121, 136, and 147 respectively. Additionally, the annual demand for operators is approximately 8,521, of which 4,797 are professional operators. The report highlights that the UAV industry's core technologies encompass vehicle design, flight control systems, control chips, data transmission, operating software, system integration, operation training, and application services. Job roles include mechanical design engineers, equipment engineers, system engineers, maintenance engineers/technicians, electric drive engineers, R&D test engineers, flight control R&D engineers, software R&D engineers, communication engineers, and drone pilots.
In September 2021, Premier Su announced the establishment of the Chiayi Science Park, focusing on intelligent vehicles and precision agriculture related to UAVs, with an approved development budget of NT$8.5 billion allocated at the end of 2021. The talent trained and the R&D capacity built by the UAV teams of our university and partner schools through this project will lay a solid foundation for the future development of the Chiayi Science Park, particularly as the former Chiayi Campus of the National Taiwan University of Sport is currently maintained and operated by our institution. The recent Russia-Ukraine war has further demonstrated the strategic importance of UAVs, as Ukraine successfully utilized their advantages to conduct devastating surprise attacks on tanks and artillery positions. This conflict underscores the critical role and necessity of UAVs in national defense. In the foreseeable future, the UAV industry will undoubtedly become a cornerstone of global industrial and military development.