Methodology · 2 min read
How we keep 10,000 uncrewed systems comparable
One spec sheet is easy to find. Ten thousand that agree on units, fields and status are not. How USRD does it.
Manufacturers publish specifications in whatever form suits them: endurance in minutes or in hours, payload in pounds or in kilograms. One spec sheet is easy to read. Comparing a few hundred is a project.
USRD exists so you don't have to start that project.
Built by people, kept current daily
The database is the product of more than 15 years of collection by AUVSI's research team: over 50,000 hours of online research and time on show floors. It draws on open-source material and publicly available specifications, and it's updated every day as products launch, change and retire.
It now covers more than 10,000 systems:
| Domain | Platforms | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| Air | 6,300+ | 1,900+ |
| Ground | 2,300+ | 850+ |
| Maritime | 1,350+ | 550+ |
One shape for every entry
Every platform is described with the same fields, whatever its domain:
- applications and markets
- platform status and company status
- size and performance
- payloads and subsystems
Numerical values are normalized and stored in both metric and imperial units, so a filter like "endurance over four hours" means the same thing for every entry.
What people use it for
- Finding the best-fit platform for a project before sending an RFP
- Watching for new releases, competitor platforms and prototypes
- Finding partners, customers and acquisition targets
- Reading trends across past, current and emerging systems