UAVs: Recent Trends and Future Visions

Dear Colleagues，

In recent years, aerial systems, both huge and small UAVs, have observed incredible improvements in terms of their configuration, applications methodology, flying capabilities and navigation control. UAVs uses are extremely variable and applications range from services such as photography, remote sensing, path planning, search and rescue, natural hazards, agriculture, inspection of power lines and civil constructions, engineering constructions and mining, etc.
UAVs have raised to be a very widespread instrument for a wide range of applications and replaced other platforms thanks to their flexibility and moderate costs and easy to access. Furthermore different types of vehicles have been proposed: hybrid aerial robots, air-ground drones, long flight drones VTOL drones, etc. All these type of drones have increased their performance in terms of roll and turn angle, path length, flexibility in maneuvering, high scalability, portability and mobility, and control systems and future applications will therefore benefit from all of the previous gains.
UAV business, in the next decades, has also been foreseen to reach easily more than several billion dollars per year, and the trend looks promising for the future. This economic interest, the expected technological development and the growing miniaturization of onboard sensors, as well as the development of new algorithms and software needs to be addressed and better understood.
This Special Issue, entitled “UAVs: Recent Trends and Future Visions” will present the latest trends in autonomous aerial technology, in aerial robotics, and artificial intelligence for aerial systems and discuss the current advances and challenges in autonomous aerial mobile systems. With this context in mind, we are seeking innovative research on aerial systems, autonomous applications, decision making, task planning, and control.

Review articles and original research articles are welcome. Topics of interests include, but are not limited to, the following:

    Motion control and motion planning for intelligent aerial vehicles;
    Task planning, path planning, and trajectory generation for aerial powered vehicles;
    Task planning, path planning, and trajectory generation for aerial generic vehicles, such as stratospheric balloons or kites;
    Simultaneous localization and mapping in a complex environment;
    Disturbance reactions and control for aerial vehicles;
    Robust control, sliding mode control, and adaptive control for robotic systems;
    Optimization and optimal control for UAVs;
    Small scale UAVs vs heavy and big UAVs;
    Aerial vehicles application in complex environments (such as cities and closed settings);
    Cooperative UAVs, systems and controls;
    Unmanned Aerial systems applications in space environments;
    Unmanned Aerial systems in atmospheric planetary environments (Mars, Titan, Venus, etc.);
    Unmanned Aerial systems in low atmospheric moons and planetary environments (Moon and Mercury, etc.);
    Advanced decision and control methods for unmanned systems;

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Giacomo Colombatti
Dr. Carlo Bettanini

Guest Editors