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Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics and Automation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 December 2021) | Viewed by 16870

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, Faculty of Control, Robotics and Electrical Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, 60-965 Poznan, Poland
Interests: UAV control and simulation; machine learning for UAV autonomous control; motion and mission planning; autonomy reliability and safety of UAVs; multi-robot systems; swarm robotics; relative UAV localization; object tracking; perception and multi-sensor fusion; optimization techniques for UAVs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, 166 36 Prague 6, Czech Republic
Interests: motion planning; swarm robotics; modular robotics; robotic simulators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II", P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Naples, Italy
Interests: unmanned aircraft systems; vision-based applications; avionics; guidance and navigation; detect and avoid; target tracking; path planning; data fusion; swarms; distributed space systems; formation flying; in orbit proximity operations; space surveillance
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As Guest Editor, I am inviting you to submit papers to a Special Issue of Applied Sciences on the subject of “Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles”.

In recent years, we have experienced a significant increase in research on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Such features as compact size, durability, low price, and high efficiency increase the practical uses of UAVs. Each day brings new application areas for UAVs, which become an even stronger accelerator for research and development. To increase the level of autonomy, reliability, and safety of UAVs operating in an environment close to humans, especially in the transport tasks of individual units and groups of UAVs, some open problems and challenges still need to be highlighted and solved.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences aims to contribute to the development of unmanned aerial vehicles in all areas of applications. Particular attention will be given to high-quality papers that address significant advances on the development and application of modeling, control, optimization techniques, and machine learning for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to new application for UAVs; UAV control and simulation; machine learning for UAV autonomous control; motion and mission planning; autonomy, reliability, and safety of UAVs; multigoal path planning; multirobot systems; swarm robotics; multirobot data collection; relative UAV localization; guidance and navigation; object tracking; perception and multisensor fusion; vision and sensing; SLAM for UAVs; grasping and manipulation; design of unmanned aerial vehicles; and optimization techniques for UAVs and safety-critical systems.

Prof. Dr. Wojciech Giernacki
Dr. Martin Saska
Prof. Dr. Giancarmine Fasano
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • new application for UAVs
  • UAV control and simulation
  • machine learning for UAV autonomous control
  • motion and mission planning
  • autonomy, reliability, and safety of UAVs
  • multigoal path planning
  • multirobot systems
  • swarm robotics
  • multirobot data collection
  • relative UAV localization
  • guidance and navigation
  • object tracking
  • perception and multisensor fusion
  • vision and sensing
  • SLAM for UAVs
  • grasping and manipulation
  • design of unmanned aerial vehicles
  • optimization techniques for UAVs
  • safety-critical systems

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 9000 KiB  
Article
Design and Implementation of a Tether-Powered Hexacopter for Long Endurance Missions
by Kai-Hung Chang and Shao-Kang Hung
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(24), 11887; https://doi.org/10.3390/app112411887 - 14 Dec 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4324
Abstract
A tether-powered unmanned aerial vehicle is presented in this article to demonstrate the highest altitude and the longest flight time among surveyed literature. The grid-powered ground station transmits high voltage electrical energy through a well-managed conductive tether to a 2-kg hexacopter hovering in [...] Read more.
A tether-powered unmanned aerial vehicle is presented in this article to demonstrate the highest altitude and the longest flight time among surveyed literature. The grid-powered ground station transmits high voltage electrical energy through a well-managed conductive tether to a 2-kg hexacopter hovering in the air. Designs, implementations, and theoretical models are discussed in this research work. Experimental results show that the proposed system can operate over 50 m for 4 h continuously. Compared with battery-powered multicopters, tether-powered ones have great advantages on specific-area long-endurance applications, such as precision agriculture, intelligent surveillance, and vehicle-deployed cellular sites. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
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16 pages, 2867 KiB  
Article
A Versatile Aerial Manipulator Design and Realization of UAV Take-Off from a Rocking Unstable Surface
by Hannibal Paul, Ryo Miyazaki, Takamasa Kominami, Robert Ladig and Kazuhiro Shimonomura
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(19), 9157; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11199157 - 1 Oct 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2732
Abstract
UAVs are one of the fastest types of robots that can be deployed in a remote environment. Unfortunately, they have a limited flight time and therefore may need to stop occasionally in an unknown, uncontrolled area. However, conventional UAVs require flat and stationary [...] Read more.
UAVs are one of the fastest types of robots that can be deployed in a remote environment. Unfortunately, they have a limited flight time and therefore may need to stop occasionally in an unknown, uncontrolled area. However, conventional UAVs require flat and stationary surfaces for a safe landing and take-off. Some studies on adaptive landing approach for UAVs can be found in the past, but adaptive take-off from non-flat surfaces has not been discussed for the most part, yet. In this work, we discuss the problems associated with a conventional UAV take-off from non-flat surfaces and provide a novel approach for UAV take-off from a sloped or rocking surface. We also discuss the design of a novel multitasking three-arm aerial manipulator system with parallel link mechanism and achieve the above-mentioned task. With experiments, we show that the system can provide stability for a UAV landing on a rocking surface that allows for a safe take-off. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
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14 pages, 1404 KiB  
Article
Emergency Planning for UAV-Controlled Crowd Evacuations
by Afnan Alhindi, Deem Alyami, Aziza Alsubki, Razan Almousa, Najla Al Nabhan, A. B. M. Alim Al Islam and Heba Kurdi
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(19), 9009; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11199009 - 27 Sep 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2150
Abstract
One of the most challenging problems during disasters involving crowds is pedestrian evacuation. It is very important in such situations to improve survival rates by getting all or most of the people out in the shortest possible time. Technological intervention through augmenting the [...] Read more.
One of the most challenging problems during disasters involving crowds is pedestrian evacuation. It is very important in such situations to improve survival rates by getting all or most of the people out in the shortest possible time. Technological intervention through augmenting the evacuation process using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) exhibits great potential in improving survival rates, but the exploration of this method is still in its infancy. Therefore, this study explores the potential of utilizing UAVs for crowd management during emergency evacuations. We conducted a rigorous study, using a simulation model featuring four UAVs and differing numbers of pedestrians, with use of two UAV guidance approaches: partial guidance and full guidance. The experimental results suggest that exploiting UAVs in crowd evacuation and following the partial guidance approach can lead to a more efficient evacuation process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
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23 pages, 2298 KiB  
Article
Trajectory Tracking with Adaptive Robust Control for Quadrotor
by Tadeo Espinoza-Fraire, Armando Saenz, Francisco Salas, Raymundo Juarez and Wojciech Giernacki
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(18), 8571; https://doi.org/10.3390/app11188571 - 15 Sep 2021
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2382
Abstract
This work proposes three robust mechanisms based on the MIT rule and the sliding-mode techniques. These robust mechanisms have to tune the gains of an adaptive Proportional-Derivative controller to steer a quadrotor in a predefined trajectory. The adaptive structure is a model reference [...] Read more.
This work proposes three robust mechanisms based on the MIT rule and the sliding-mode techniques. These robust mechanisms have to tune the gains of an adaptive Proportional-Derivative controller to steer a quadrotor in a predefined trajectory. The adaptive structure is a model reference adaptive control (MRAC). The robust mechanisms proposed to achieve the control objective (trajectory tracking) are MIT rule, MIT rule with sliding mode (MIT-SM), MIT rule with twisting (MIT-Twisting), and MIT rule with high order sliding mode (MIT-HOSM). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
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Review

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21 pages, 787 KiB  
Review
Image Mosaicing Applied on UAVs Survey
by Jean K. Gómez-Reyes, Juan P. Benítez-Rangel, Luis A. Morales-Hernández, Emmanuel Resendiz-Ochoa and Karla A. Camarillo-Gomez
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(5), 2729; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052729 - 7 Mar 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3431
Abstract
The use of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology has allowed for advances in the area of robotics in control processes and application development. Such is the case of image processing, in which, by the use of aerial photographs taken by these aircrafts, it [...] Read more.
The use of UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) technology has allowed for advances in the area of robotics in control processes and application development. Such is the case of image processing, in which, by the use of aerial photographs taken by these aircrafts, it is possible to perform surveillance and monitoring tasks. As an example, we can mention the use of aerial photographs for the generation of panoramic images through the process of stitching images without losing image resolution. Some applications are photogrammetry and mapping, where the main problems to be solved are image alignment and ghosting images, for which different stitching techniques can be applied. These methodologies can be categorized into direct methods or feature-based methods. This paper aims to show an overview of the most frequently applied mosaicing techniques in UAVs by providing an introduction to those interested in developing in this area. For this purpose, a summary of the most applied techniques and their applications is given, showing the trend of the research field and the contribution of different countries over time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)
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