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Safety and Security in Unmanned Aerial System: Challenges and Innovations

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 10

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: nonlinear systems; intelligent control; complex dynamic systems; filtering and fault diagnosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150000, China
Interests: multi-agent systems; path planning and decision; state estimation; intelligent systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: sliding mode control; robust control; adaptive control; intelligent control; nonlinear systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Control Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China
Interests: sliding mode control; adaptive control; intelligent control; soft robots; robotics systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Center for Space Control and Inertial Technology, School of Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), Harbin, China
Interests: inertial navigation; satellite navigation; integrated navigation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the widespread application of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in smart cities, public safety, and disaster relief, their safety and security have become core issues of concern to both academia and engineering. The distributed and collaborative nature of UAS in complex environments and their high dependence on communication, navigation, and control systems make them more susceptible to environmental disturbances, hardware failures, and cyberattacks, thus posing potential safety risks.

In recent years, theories and technologies related to UAS flight safety have continuously advanced, including disturbance rejection control, fault diagnosis, and fault tolerance mechanisms. Future studies on UAS will rapidly develop the technology towards achieving autonomous disturbance rejection, intelligence, and safe controllability, driven by the dual demands of safety and security. The question of how to improve the autonomy and intelligence of systems while ensuring safety and security under resource-constrained conditions has become a core scientific problem that urgently needs to be solved across multiple fields such as control, communication, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity.

This Special Issue aims to provide researchers with a high-level platform to showcase cutting-edge achievements in the field of UAS safety and protection. We welcome original research papers and high-quality review articles on theoretical methods, innovative design, and engineering applications. We particularly encourage submissions of research findings involving interdisciplinary fields (such as control, communication, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and human–machine systems).

Welcome research directions including, but not limited to, the following:

  1. UAS Safety Control Theory;
  2. Critical Mission Planning;
  3. Fault Monitoring and Diagnosis;
  4. Airspace Management and Traffic Control;
  5. Navigation and Communication Security Assurance;
  6. Human–Machine Safety Interaction;
  7. Innovative Structural Material Design;
  8. Network and Data Security;
  9. Energy Security Management.

Prof. Dr. Yi Zeng
Prof. Dr. Yabin Gao
Dr. Xiaolei Li
Dr. Xiangyu Shao
Dr. Zhennan Wei
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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

  • unmanned systems
  • control theory
  • mission planning
  • fault diagnosis
  • secure navigation
  • safety and reliability
  • cyber and information security
  • energy and resource management

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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