Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Smart Cities: Optimization, Collaboration, and Intelligent Applications
A special issue of Applied System Innovation (ISSN 2571-5577). This special issue belongs to the section "Artificial Intelligence".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2026
Special Issue Editor
Interests: intelligent optimization; resource scheduling; intelligent diagnosis; artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
With the rapid development of smart cities, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become integral to urban management, public safety, infrastructure monitoring, and environmental assessment. This Special Issue aims to explore advanced models, algorithms, and systems for efficient air–ground collaboration and intelligent coordination of UAVs in complex urban environments.
We welcome contributions on topics such as the following:
- Innovative UAV applications that aid in the development of smart cities, including urban governance, environmental perception, and infrastructure monitoring.
- Air–ground integration technologies to enhance situational awareness and urban-scale data intelligence.
- Technologies for intelligent perception, communication, and decision-making enable UAV operations in challenging urban situations.
- AI-driven models for resource management and urban service optimization using drone networks.
- Operational safety, reliability, and sustainability of drones in evolving urban settings.
- New frameworks and innovative approaches in UAV-enabled smart city applications.
- Optimization algorithm and its application.
We invite scholars and practitioners to share insights, innovations, and experiences that can contribute to shaping the future of UAV-enabled smart cities.
Prof. Dr. Wu Deng
Guest Editor
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 System Innovation 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 1600 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 aerial systems
- smart cities
- air–ground collaboration
- AI-enabled urban applications
- UAV control
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