Radio control (often abbreviated to RC) is the use of control signals transmitted by radio to remotely operate a device. Examples of simple radio control systems are garage door openers and keyless entry systems for vehicles, in which a small handheld radio transmitter unlocks or opens doors. Radio control is also used for control of model vehicles from a hand-held radio transmitter. Industrial, military, and scientific research organizations make use of radio-controlled vehicles as well. A rapidly growing application is control of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) for both civilian and military uses, although these have more sophisticated control systems than traditional applications.
History The idea of controlling unmanned vehicles (for the most part in an attempt to improve the accuracy of torpedoes for military purposes) predates the invention of radio. The latter half of the 1800s saw development of many such devices, connected to an operator by wires, including the first practical application invented by German engineer Werner von Siemens in 1870.
Getting rid of the wires via using a new wireless technology, radio, appeared in the late 1890s. In 1897 British engineer Ernest Wilson and C. J. Evans patented a radio-controlled torpedo or demonstrated radio-controlled boats on the Thames river (accounts of what they did vary). At an 1898 exhibition at Madison Square Garden, Nikola Tesla demonstrated a small boat that used a coherer-based radio control. With an eye towards selling the idea to the US government as a torpedo, Tesla's 1898 patent included a clockwork frequency changer so an enemy could not take control of the device.
In 1903, Spanish engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo introduced a radio-based control system called the "Telekino" at the Paris Academy of Sciences and applied for patents in several countries. The system was intended to test the Astra-Torres airship—a dirigible of his own design—without risking human lives. While previous mechanisms relied on electromagnetic on/off signaling to follow a rigidly fixed sequence, Torres established a method capable of controlling devices with multiple operating states. This method required a transmitter able to send a variety of different code words using a binary telegraph key signal. It also featured a novel receiver that changed the device's operational state based on the specific code word received. The system could independently select different positions for the steering engine and manage different velocities for the propulsion engine. Simultaneously, it could actuate other mechanisms, such as switching an electric light or raising and lowering a flag, allowing for up to 19 distinct actions. In 1904, Torres conducted the first test on a three-wheeled land vehicle, achieving a range of 20 to 30 meters. In 1906, in the presence of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and a large audience, Torres successfully demonstrated the invention in the Port of Bilbao. From the shore, he guided the electric launch Vizcaya—which had passengers on board—at a distance of over two kilometers. In 1904, Bat, a Windermere steam launch, was controlled using experimental radio control by its inventor, [Jack Kitchen]. In 1909 French inventor [Gabet] demonstrated what he called his "Torpille Radio-Automatique", a radio-controlled torpedo. In 1917, Archibald Low, as head of the secret Royal Flying Corps (RFC) experimental works at Feltham, was the first person to use radio control successfully on an aircraft, a 1917 Aerial Target. It was "piloted" from the ground by future world aerial speed record holder Henry Segrave. Low's systems encoded the command transmissions as a countermeasure to prevent enemy intervention. By 1918 the secret D.C.B. Section of the Royal Navy's Signals School, Portsmouth under the command of Eric Robinson V.C. used a variant of the Aerial Target’s radio control system to control from ‘mother’ aircraft different types of naval vessels including a submarine.
During World War I American inventor John Hays Hammond, Jr. developed many techniques used in subsequent radio control including developing remote controlled torpedoes, ships, anti-jamming systems and even a system allowing his remote-controlled ship targeting an enemy ship's searchlights. In 1922 he installed radio control gear on the obsolete US Navy battleship USS Iowa so it could be used as a target ship (sunk in gunnery exercise in March 1923). The Soviet Red Army used remotely controlled teletanks during the 1930s in the Winter War against Finland and fielded at least two teletank battalions at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. A teletank is controlled by radio from a control tank at a distance of 500–1500 m, the two constituting a telemechanical group. There were also remotely controlled cutters and experimental remotely controlled planes in the Red Army. The United Kingdom's World War One development of their radio-controlled 1917 'Aerial Target' (AT) and 1918 'Distant Control Boat' (DCB) using Low's control systems led eventually to their 1930s fleet of "Queen Bee". This was a remotely controlled unmanned version of the de Havilland "Tiger Moth" aircraft for Navy fleet gunnery firing practice. The "Queen Bee" was superseded by the similarly named Airspeed Queen Wasp, a purpose-built target aircraft of higher performance.
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