也许你已经玩了很多年的无人机了，也许你拥有的无人机也已经可以装满一个柜子了。但是，当一个小白问你什么是无人机的时候，也许你还是会迟疑一会儿……

　　我们经常在新闻里或者文章中看到无人汽车也被称为无人机，水下潜航器也被称为无人机，好像现在只要是不要人来操纵或者靠人遥控操纵的机械都能叫无人机。所以有一些小伙伴经常来问这个看似很无聊却又难以回答的问题——那些水里游的、地上跑的“无人机”和我们在天上飞的“无人机”是一样的吗？我们应该怎样称呼我们飞手手中的“无人机”以至于和其他“无人机”区别开呢？

　　其实“无人机”表达模糊其实是吃了中文的“亏”！所以要想搞清楚这个问题，我们还是应该从它的英文名称来探讨！为什么要从英文名称中探讨，因为“无人机”最先出现在英国，所以他们的命名最具有“权威性”。

　　众所周知，关于“无人机”的英文名大概有4个，分别是①UnmannedAerialVehicle，②UnmannedAircraftSystem，③RemotelyPilotedAircraft，④Drone。现在就让英语水平很LOW的小编一个个来说。

　　①UnmannedAerialVehicle

　　Unmanned的意思是“无人机操纵的”，Aerial的意思是“空中的”，这两个词都是限定词（相当于划定一个范围）修饰“Vehicle”的，而“Vehicle”便是整个名词词组的核心。

　　说道这个“Vehicle”，它的意思有很多。它可以表示汽车，媒介物，舟车，飞船等等事物，而当它作为动词时还可以表示运输。所以很明显，这个词是强调平台载荷能力的。不管汽车也好，船也好，还是“无人机”也好，他们都具备一定的载荷能力，这是否具备载荷能力也是区分“无人机”和“航模”的标准之一。

　　著名航空科学家张聚恩先生在《无人机和航空模型的异同》中写到：“无人机的英文名UnmannedAerialVehicle，即“无人飞行载具”，可以理解为搭载载荷的平台与载荷的组合体。如侦察型无人机就是在具有一定飞行能力的平台上安装侦察设备和传输设备来完成任务……”

　　所以说，能够在空中飞行的具有载荷能力的平台才能称得上真正的“无人机”，反之“无人机”也能被称之为“无人飞行载体（具）”或者“无人飞行平台”。

　　②UnmannedAircraftSystem

　　Unmanned在上文中介绍了，而Aircraft的意思是通常被人认为是“飞机”的意思，可这是不准确的。Aircraft的真正意思是“machinecapableofflight”即“航空器”，更准确的说应该是“航空机械”。为什么这么说呢，主要是要将那些不是器械性的航空器如气球排除在外。

　　而最后一个词是System——系统。所以说这个词是从整个无人航空器的系统层面上的定义。根据中国AOPA发布的相关规定文件，我们可以知道，无人机航空器系统包括“无人机”、相关的控制站、所需的指令与控制数据链路以及批准的型号设计规定的任何其他部件组成的系统。

　　所以从上面这个定义的解释来看，UnmannedAircraftSystem包含了无人机运行过程中的每一个环节，也包含了整个软硬件的组成。所以这时的“无人机”可以被称之为“无人驾驶航空器系统”。这个词汇整个的风格跟前两个词有着较大的区别，主要是它没有保留Unmanned这个单词。

　　Remotely也通常被替换成Remote，前者是副词，后者是形容词，但是不管是副词还是形容词，它们都是限定词，起划分范围的作用，Remotely的含义为“遥控地”——即保持一定距离的接触。

　　而Piloted的意思是“驾驶”，而且特指驾驶的物体为航空器或者船。它与驾驶汽车的“drive”有着明显的差别。

　　而Aircraft的意思上文介绍了。它表达的是航空器，那么在这种表述下，它其实是强调的是人怎么操纵“无人机”——即操纵无人机的方法。这时候的“无人机”就可以称之为“遥控驾驶航空器”。

　　④Drone

　　这个单词应该是无人机飞手们最熟悉的英文单词。它本意其实是“雄峰”，但后来也被用来表示无人机。而且就AOPA云小编的研究来说，我们现在的“无人机”的正确翻译应该就是“Drone”。

　　在文章开头我们就说了现在无人潜航器、无人汽车都被称为了“无人机”，而英语单词“Drone”也可以被用来表示这些无人潜航器……

　　比如近段时间中国在南海“没收”美国潜航器的事件中，这款无人潜航器就被称之为“Drone”。

　　所以中文的“无人机”和英语中的“Drone”是保持着高度一致的。而且这个单词也是非常口语化的，美国人民非常喜欢用它来称呼无人机。但是Drone并不限定于“航空”这个概念内，他们只强调“无人”。在消费级无人机刚刚出现的时候，有人甚至把“无人机”称之为“小蜜蜂”，这就是一种直译的结果。不过AOPA云小编还是挺喜欢“小蜜蜂”这个名称的。

　　好了，四个英文名称我们都介绍完了，你明白了吗？不过现在也有一个很苦恼的问题。这件问题首先要从国内的某款载人无人机说起。

　　虽然说无人机是具有载荷功能的，但是并没有载人的例子。当无人机可以载人的时候说它是无人机总感觉有些别扭。但如果将人看成“物体”——也就是把人看成和无人机其他的任务设备如摄像头一样的话——这时无人机的操纵者并不在航空器上操纵器械，操纵者还是在地上“遥控”无人机，这整个过程也符合我们上文介绍的情况，所以从这个方面来解释，这款载人无人机也是无人机的说法也似乎“合情合理”！但是这样子又会出现问题。因为目前世界上有些国家正在研发无人驾驶客机，这就不仅仅是一个人的载荷了，但是这难道也能算作“无人机”？恐怕没有那么简单吧！你觉得呢？

　　Maybe you've been playing drones for years, and maybe your drones have been filled with a cabinet. But when a little white asks you what a drone is, you might hesitate for a moment......

　　We often see in the news or the unmanned vehicle is also known as the UAV is submerged under water, also known as the UAV, it seems as long as it is now not to manipulate or control on the remote control machinery can make uav. So some of our little friends often ask this seemingly boring but difficult question - are those underwater, ground running drones exactly the same as our "unmanned aerial vehicle" flying in the sky? How should we call the drones in our hands, so that we can distinguish them from other drones?

　　In fact, the "unmanned aerial vehicle" expression is in fact the Chinese "loss"! So if we want to figure out this problem, we should discuss it from its English name! Why is it discussed from the English name, because "unmanned aerial vehicle" first appeared in the UK, so their naming is most authoritative".

　　As we all know, there are about 4 English names about "unmanned aerial vehicle", namely, UnmannedAerialVehicle, UnmannedAircraftSystem, RemotelyPilotedAircraft, and Drone. Now let the English level is very small LOW one by one.

　　UnmannedAerialVehicle

　　Unmanned means "drone manipulation", "Aerial" means "air", and these two words are qualifiers (equivalent to delimit a range) to modify "Vehicle", and "Vehicle" is the core of the whole NOUN phrase.

　　Say this "Vehicle", it means a lot. It can be said that the car, vehicle, vessel, ship and so on things, and when it is used as a verb can also express transportation. So, obviously, the term emphasizes platform load capacity. Whether cars, ships, or drones, they have the ability to load, and whether or not they have the ability to load is also one of the criteria to distinguish between UAVs and model aircraft.

　　The famous aviation scientist Mr. Zhang Juen wrote in the "similarities and differences between UAV and aviation model" wrote: "unmanned aerial vehicle English name UnmannedAerialVehicle, that is," unmanned flight vehicle ", can be understood as a combination of loading platform and load. Such as reconnaissance UAV is equipped with reconnaissance equipment and transmission equipment on a platform with a certain flight ability to complete the task......"

　　Therefore, the platform with the ability to load in the air can be called the "unmanned aerial vehicle", and "unmanned aerial vehicle" can also be called "unmanned flight vehicle" or "unmanned flight platform"".

　　UnmannedAircraftSystem

　　Unmanned introduced in the above, and Aircraft means "usually" is considered "aircraft" meaning, but this is not accurate. The real meaning of Aircraft is "machinecapableofflight", that is, "aircraft", more accurately, it should be "aviation machinery"". Why do you say that the main thing is to exclude those aircraft that are not instrumental, such as balloons?.

　　And the last word is System - the system. So the word is defined on the system level of the entire unmanned aerial vehicle. According to the relevant documents issued by China AOPA, we can know that UAV system includes UAV, related control stations, required instruction and control data link, and any other components approved by the model design.

　　So, from the definition above, UnmannedAircraftSystem contains every link of the UAV operation process, and also contains the whole software and hardware components. So the "unmanned aerial vehicle" can be called "unmanned aerial vehicle system"". The whole style of the word has a big difference between the last two words, mainly because it doesn't keep the word "Unmanned".

　　Remotely is usually replaced by Remote. The former is an adverb, and the latter is an adjective. However, whether it is an adverb or an adjective, they are all finite words, which play a role in dividing the scope. Remotely means "remote control" -- that is, keeping a certain distance of contact.

　　And Piloted means "driving", and specifically refers to the driving object for the aircraft or ship. It has a distinct difference from the "drive" of driving a car.

　　And the meaning of Aircraft is introduced above. It expresses the aircraft, then in this statement, it actually emphasizes the people how to operate the "unmanned aerial vehicle" - that is, unmanned aerial vehicle manipulation method. At this time the "unmanned aerial vehicle" can be called "remote control aircraft"".

　　Drone

　　This word should be the most familiar English word of unmanned hand. It meant "drones", but has also been applied to uav. And the AOPA cloud Xiaobian research, we now "UAV" correct translation should be "Drone"".

　　At the beginning we say now unmanned underwater vehicles, unmanned vehicles are referred to "drone", and the English word "Drone" can also be used to represent these unmanned underwater vehicles......

　　For example, recently in the South China Sea China "confiscated" America R.O.V. incident, the unmanned underwater vehicles are referred to as Drone".

　　So the Chinese "drone" and the English word "Drone" are highly consistent. And the word is very colloquial, and the American people are very fond of using it as a drone. But Drone is not limited to the concept of "aviation", and they only emphasize "nobody"". At the time of the emergence of the consumer drones, some even call drones as "little bees", which is the result of literal translation. However, AOPA cloud Xiaobian still like the name of "little bee".

　　All right, four English names are all over here. Do you understand? But now there is a very distressing problem. This problem begins with a domestic unmanned aerial vehicle.

　　Although the UAV has a load function, there is no human example. When unmanned aircraft can be manned, it is unmanned aircraft, always feel a bit awkward. But if the people as "object", also is the people as the UAV mission equipment and other such as camera like when the UAV operator is not in the aircraft handling equipment, the operator on the ground or "remote control" UAV, this whole process also conform to our above situation so from this aspect to explain, this is also the manned UAV UAV that seems perfectly logical and reasonable"! But it's going to be a problem again. Because some countries in the world are developing unmanned aircraft, which is not just a person's load, but this can also be counted as "unmanned aerial vehicle"? I'm afraid it's not that simple! What's your opinion?