Future military and civilian unmanned systems will be extensively used on land,under the sea,in air,and in space.Evaluation of their autonomy is critical to realize the autonomous operation ability of unmanned systems.This paper discussed the basic concepts of autonomy and the significance of autonomy evaluation,and then surveys and describes existing evaluating methods.Based on analyses of key technologies and these technologies’ technical readiness levels,a cobweb evaluation model as a universal evaluation model has been used to evaluate unmanned systems.If the technology warps(aspects of autonomy) and wefts(levels of those aspects) of unmanned systems can be determined for the cobweb model,the model can handle the mutual coupling,high dimensions,and diversity of warp lines.This model potentially has wide application in evaluating various unmanned systems. Future military and civilian unmanned systems will be extensively used on land, under the sea, in air, and in space. Evaluation of their autonomy is critical to realize the autonomous operation ability of unmanned systems. This paper discusses the basic concepts of autonomy and the significance of autonomy evaluation, and then surveys and illustrated existing evaluated methods. and based on analyzes of key technologies and these technologies’ technical readiness levels, a cobweb evaluation model as a universal evaluation model has been used to evaluate unmanned systems. If the technology warps ( aspects of autonomy) and wefts (levels of those aspects) of unmanned systems can be determined for the cobweb model, the model can handle the mutual coupling, high dimensions, and diversity of warp lines. This model potentially has wide application in evaluating various unmanned systems.