Special Issues

Drones publishes Special Issues to create collections of papers on specific topics, with the aim of building a community of authors and readers to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas and research directions. Special Issues are led by Guest Editors, who are experts on the topic and all Special Issue submissions follow MDPI's standard editorial process. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief and/or designated Editorial Board Member will oversee Guest Editor appointments and Special Issue proposals, checking their content for relevance and ensuring the suitability of the material for the journal. The papers published in a Special Issue will be collected and displayed on a dedicated page of the journal’s website. Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies and Guest Editor responsibilities can be found here. For any inquiries related to a Special Issue, please contact the Editorial Office.

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Drones for Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Science: 2nd Edition
edited by Brian Gullett, Pantelis Velanas and Katerina Margariti
submission deadline 24 Jun 2026 | Viewed by 375
Keywords: unmanned aircraft systems; drones; wildland fire; fire dynamics; sensors; firefighter safety; plume dispersion; meteorological measurements; fire emissions; exposure risk; fire prevention; fire response; post-fire ecological restoration
Advances in Intelligent Coordination Control for Autonomous UUVs
edited by Haitao Zhang, Bin-Bin Hu, , Mingkang Long and Henglai Wei
submission deadline 25 Jun 2026 | 5 articles | Viewed by 12231 | Submission Open
Keywords: cooperative control; autonomous underwater unmanned vehicles; decision making; game theory; machine learning; control theory; distributed optimization; intelligent connected vehicles; vehicle dynamics control
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)
Digital Twins and Extended Reality: Opportunities and Challenges of Integrated Applications (2nd Edition)
edited by Daniela Oreni, and
submission deadline 26 Jun 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 12017 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAVs digital twin XR-MR-AR-VR scan-to-BIM— BIM projects; HBIM projects; BIM-to-FEA; CoSim; BEM; InfraBIM conservation; management and dissemination of cultural built heritage fault diagnosis energy; structural analysis; and costs evaluation virtual museum; virtual– visual storytelling drone-based and drone-supported solutions
Autonomous Drone Navigation in GPS-Denied Environments
edited by and Yang Liu
submission deadline 30 Jun 2026 | 11 articles | Viewed by 31366 | Submission Open
Keywords: autonomous drone navigation; GPS-denied environment; visual– inertial navigation; visual– inertial odometry; simultaneous localization and mapping; resource-constrained autonomous navigation; robust dynamic sensor calibration
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)
Advancing Space-Air-Ground-Sea Integrated Networks in Drones: Techniques, Applications, and Future Directions
edited by , and Li Li
submission deadline 30 Jun 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 6184 | Submission Open
Keywords: drone-enabled SAGSINs; 6G networks; integrated space-air-ground-sea communications; cooperative transmission; cross-domain resource scheduling; mobility management; edge computing in drone networks; security and privacy in drone-enabled networks
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
Advances in Drone Applications for Last-Mile Delivery Operations submission deadline 30 Jun 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2680 | Submission Open
Keywords: drone delivery; last-mile logistics; (AI-based) planning & scheduling  ; AS/RS integration; Packaging  ; payload management  ; energy efficiency  ; insurance; sustainability
(This special issue belongs to the Section Innovative Urban Mobility)
UAVs for Nature Conservation Tasks in Complex Environments
edited by Tom Richardson, Ulrik Pagh Schultz and
submission deadline 1 Jul 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 6344 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAV/MAV; perception; collaborative; wildlife; complex environments; navigation; mapping; real-time
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)
Technologies and Applications of UAV Channel Models in Communications and Spectrum Awareness: 2nd Edition submission deadline 10 Jul 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 4201 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAV channel model; UAV channel sounding; UAV ISAC; UAV communication; UAV spectrum sensing; UAV trajectory planning
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
UAV and USV Technologies for Inspection and Monitoring in Coastal Engineering submission deadline 10 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 471 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAV photogrammetry; USV bathymetry; topo-bathymetric integration; coastal and civil infrastructure monitoring; 3D change detection; structural resilience; autonomous surveying; AI-based damage assessment; multi-temporal analysis; reproducible monitoring workflows
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)
GeoAI for UAVs and Earth Observation: Methods, Applications and Possible Integration submission deadline 16 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 437 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAVs; earth observation; algorithms; applications in sciences; GeoAI; hyperspectral/multispectral; SAR; LiDAR
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)
Advances in the Use of UAVs for Monitoring and Analysis of Forage and Agricultural Crops: Technologies, Methods and Applications
edited by and Luciana Sandra Bastos De Souza
submission deadline 19 Jul 2026 | 7 articles | Viewed by 41306 | Submission Open
Keywords: precision agriculture; forage crops; agricultural monitoring; image analysis; yield estimation; thermal imaging; machine learning; 3D modeling; data modeling
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Agriculture and Forestry)
When Deep Learning Meets Geometry for Air-to-Ground Perception on Drones: 2nd Edition
edited by , Yangliu Kuai, Hongqi Fan and Gongjian Wen
submission deadline 29 Jul 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 6482 | Submission Open
Keywords: object detection  ; object tracking  ; object localization  ; object segmentation  ; vision foundation models  ; multimodal data processing
Wearable Technologies for Driving Drones: Innovations and Applications
edited by , and Bojan Jerbić
submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 6363 | Submission Open
Keywords: wearable technology; drone control systems; human– drone interaction; bio-sensing; gesture recognition; haptic feedback; robotics; augmented reality (AR); virtual reality (VR); ergonomics in drone piloting
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)
UAVs and UGVs Robotics for Emergency Response in a Changing Climate
edited by , Santos Miguel Orozco Soto and Christian Wankmüller
submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 3024 | Submission Open
Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs); robotics for hazardous environments; disaster robotics; human-robot teaming; search and rescue (SAR); emergency response automation; autonomous navigation; real-time situational awareness
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)
Design and Development of UAV Systems for Logistics Networks and Operations submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1372 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAV; advanced communication systems; cybersecurity; intelligent transportation; smart logistics; autonomous distribution; machine learning; integration with augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR); swarm systems; sensor intelligence
Security-by-Design in UAVs: Enabling Intelligent Monitoring
edited by , Yi Zhou, and Lingling Lv
submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1043 | Submission Open
Keywords: multi-UAV systems; security-by-design; cybersecurity; relative localization; autonomous navigation; cooperative control; privacy protection; intelligent monitoring
(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))
Advanced Autonomous Mobility Toward Low-Altitude Economy and Three-Dimensional Transportation Systems: 2nd Edition
edited by Xiangkun He, Hailong Huang, Caizheng Wang and Henglai Wei
submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 504 | Submission Open
Keywords: autonomous aerial vehicles for urban air mobility; autonomous ground vehicles for smart cities; end-to-end autonomous ground and aerial vehicle technologies; AI and machine learning applications in 3D traffic management; cybersecurity and privacy concerns in connected aerial and ground mobility; autonomous multimodal mobility technologies; 3D transportation infrastructure planning and design; sensor technologies and perception systems for 3D transportation navigation; energy-efficient propulsion systems for aerial vehicles; human factors for aerial autonomous mobility
(This special issue belongs to the Section Innovative Urban Mobility)
Drones and the Internet of Things: Enabling Connected Airspace
edited by , Bernabe Matteo and Enrico Testi
submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 341 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAV communications; internet of things; aerial networks; AI-native UAV systems; edge Computing for UAVs; network optimization for UAVs; non terrestrial networks; new architecture and services for UAV networks; secure UAV communications; massive multiple access for UAV networks; modulation and coding for UAV networks
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
Advances in Civil Applications of Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Third Edition
edited by , Fernando Veiga López and Enrique Aldao Pensado
submission deadline 3 Aug 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 3591 | Submission Open
Keywords: drones; surveying; unmanned aircraft systems; regulations; swarm; photogrammetry; remote sensing; earth observation; guidance; navigation; and control; aerodynamics
Resilient Networking and Task Allocation for Drone Swarms: 2nd Edition
edited by , and
submission deadline 10 Aug 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 7894 | Submission Open
Keywords: drone swarms; UAV ad hoc networks; swarm cooperative communications; swarm secure issues; swarm cooperative decision making
Advances in Perception, Communications, and Control for Drones: 2nd Edition submission deadline 16 Aug 2026 | 9 articles | Viewed by 15821 | Submission Open
Keywords: perception; drone communications; autonomous control; communication-oriented control; perception-aware control; drone swarms
Intelligent Cooperative Technologies of UAV Swarm Systems
edited by , and
submission deadline 20 Aug 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 3526 | Submission Open
Keywords: AI-enabled drones; intelligent perception and cognition; autonomous navigation and cooperative localization; AI-enabled decision-making and planning; countermeasures and confrontation; learning-based control and optimization; game-theoretical analysis; security and resilience
(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))
Computational Fluid Dynamics for Next-Generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
edited by , Fernando Veiga López and Elena Beatriz Martín Ortega
submission deadline 20 Aug 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 3084 | Submission Open
Keywords: computational fluid dynamics; urban air mobility; reduced order models; AI-enhanced flow prediction; wind turbulence; urban wind forecasting; microweather; wind gusts; wind-aware path planning
(This special issue belongs to the Section Innovative Urban Mobility)
Flight Control and Collision Avoidance of UAVs: 2nd Edition
edited by Rodney Swee Huat Teo and
submission deadline 20 Aug 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2425 | Submission Open
Keywords: artificial intelligence; autonomous navigation; collision avoidance; guidance systems; computer vision; obstacle detection; decision making under uncertainty; safety verification; robust control; multi-object tracking and association; visual servoing; conflict prediction; conflict resolution; collision checking; risk assessment
UAV Path Planning Algorithms for Surveillance and Reconnaissance in Civil Applications submission deadline 28 Aug 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2315 | Submission Open
Keywords: path planning algorithms; civil surveillance; reconnaissance missions; autonomous navigation; obstacle avoidance; multi-UAV systems; machine learning for navigation; deep reinforcement learning; real-time trajectory optimization; cooperative motion planning; sensor fusion; urban monitoring; disaster response; infrastructure inspection; rotary-wing; fixed-wing and convertible UAVs; ethics and regulation in UAV operations
Navigation, Control and Mission Planning Advances for Safe, Efficient and Autonomous Drones: 2nd Edition submission deadline 30 Aug 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 6986 | Submission Open
Keywords: drone; path following; navigation; control; machine learning; autonomy; UAV; spacecraft
Advances and Innovations in Drone Technology for Mining and Construction Applications submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 6304 | Submission Open
Keywords: drone technology (or UAV/UAS); aerial surveying and mapping; mining automation; construction monitoring; AI and machine learning in drones; safety and hazard inspection; environmental rehabilitation; digitalization in industry; rescue robotics and robotic mapping (UAV and terrestrial)
Control, Planning, and Embodied Intelligence of Agile UAVs in Indoor Environments
edited by , and Lin Zhao
submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 6127 | Submission Open
Keywords: autonomous guidance and navigation; agile UAVs; indoor navigation; agile control; perception-aware planning; embodied intelligence
UAV Swarm Intelligent Control and Decision-Making
edited by , and Bin Li
submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | 9 articles | Viewed by 5459 | Submission Open
Keywords: intelligent decision-making; intelligent control; UAV swarms
(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))
Physical-Layer Security in Drone Communications—2nd Edition
edited by Dongming Li, and Yi Lou
submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 4225 | Submission Open
Keywords: drone communications; physical-layer security; key generation; drone jitter; beamforming and jamming; trajectory planning
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
Hydrogen and Hybrid Propulsion Systems for UAV Applications
edited by , Onder Turan and
submission deadline 31 Aug 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 726 | Submission Open
Keywords: hydrogen propulsion and fuel cell system; hybrid-electric and fully electric UAVs; sustainable aviation and environmental impact assessment; propulsion system design; modeling; and optimization; energy management and power electronics; thermal management and heat transfer strategies; maintenance; reliability; and lifecycle assessment UAV operations; control; and performance evaluation; advanced manufacturing; materials; and smart structures
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)
Drones and Machine Learning as a Complementary Tools in Wildlife Biology Studies
edited by and
submission deadline 20 Sep 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 21449 | Submission Open
Keywords: drones; machine learning; Yolo; DeepLabCut; IR Camera; artificial intelligence; behavioural studies
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)
Intelligent Spectrum Management in UAV Communication
edited by Yu Zhang, Guoru Ding, , , Xumin Pu and
submission deadline 20 Sep 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 3035 | Submission Open
Keywords: intelligent  spectrum management; UAV communications; spectrum sharing; cognitive radio; interference mitigation; intelligent spectrum sensing; AI-enabled wireless networks; UAV-assisted 5G/6G; non-terrestrial networks
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
Recent Advances in Healthcare Applications of Drones submission deadline 24 Sep 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 4396 | Submission Open
Keywords: drones in healthcare; unmanned medical logistics; emergency medical services; telemedicine
Detection, Identification and Tracking of UAVs and Drones: 2nd Edition
edited by Richard Han, VP Nguyen, Karthik Dantu and
submission deadline 25 Sep 2026 | 5 articles | Viewed by 2521 | Submission Open
Keywords: detection; tracking; identification; sensor fusion; artificial intelligence; machine learning; localization
Cross-Modal Autonomous Cooperation for Intelligent Unmanned Systems
edited by Xingling Shao, Ben Niu, Feisheng Yang, Ziquan Yu and
submission deadline 27 Sep 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2232 | Submission Open
Keywords: cross-modal perception; heterogeneous unmanned swarm; dynamic obstacle avoidance; human– robot collaboration; intelligent unmanned systems; autonomous navigation; energy management; security and privacy
Drones in Hydrological Research and Management submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 5 articles | Viewed by 12059 | Submission Open
Keywords: hydrological research; disaster management; image analysis; machine learning; sustainable development; water quality
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)
Unmanned Aerial Systems for Geophysical Mapping and Monitoring submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 5216 | Submission Open
Keywords: earth science; geophysics; magnetics; electromagnetic; gravity; GPR; hyperspectral; radiometrics; data processing; miniaturized sensors; sensor integration; UAS payload optimization; subsurface mapping
Intelligent Control and Optimization of Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
edited by Zongyang Lv, Qing Zhao and Hao Wei
submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 4796 | Submission Open
Keywords: eVTOL; UAV; optimal control; intelligent control; nonlinear control; fault-tolerant control
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)
Air–Ground Integrated Perception and Cooperative Control for UAVs and UGVs
edited by , Meng Li, Shuo Cheng, Qi Cao, Rui Shang and
submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 1847 | Submission Open
Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles; unmanned ground vehicles; air– ground integrated perception  ; UAV– UGV cooperative systems; multi-agent collaborative control; AI-driven unmanned systems; autonomous transportation systems; multimodal perception and fusion
(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))
Intelligent Cooperative Control and Application of Unmanned Surface/Underwater Vehicles
edited by Lu Liu, , Maohan Liang and Yifan Xue
submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 639 | Submission Open
Keywords: cooperative control; artificial intelligence; mission plan; distributed system; game optimization; formation control; collision avoidance; system identification; underwater navigation; visual servo control
(This special issue belongs to the Section Unmanned Surface and Underwater Drones)
Embodied Control Theory and Engineering for Autonomous Unmanned Systems
edited by , , Yizhuo Sun, and Chuanjiang Li
submission deadline 30 Sep 2026 | Viewed by 303 | Submission Open
Keywords: unmanned systems; large language models; intelligent control; state estimation; multi-agent systems; trajectory planning
(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))
Advances in Internet of Drones: Applications, Communication Infrastructures, Architectures, and Protocols for FANETs submission deadline 10 Oct 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 5470 | Submission Open
Keywords: Internet of Drones; FANET; architecture; aerial wireless networks; drone communication; swarm communication
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
Task-Oriented UAV Applications in Agro-Forestry and Livestock Systems submission deadline 16 Oct 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1141 | Submission Open
Keywords: unmanned aircraft systems (UASS); crop protection; UAV applications in agro-forestry; task-oriented UAV systems for agriculture; mission-driven drone design; agricultural aerial operations; UAV field validation in agricultural systems; autonomous aerial platforms for agriculture; precision aerial intervention; UAV payload integration; drone-based livestock management; UAV logistics and routing optimization in agriculture; agro-forestry and agro-energy applications
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Agriculture and Forestry)
Advances in AI Large Models for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
edited by , and
submission deadline 20 Oct 2026 | 6 articles | Viewed by 10936 | Submission Open
Keywords: AI large models; UAV network; navigation; sensor fusion; UAV swarm; cooperative sensing
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)
Next-Gen Drone Safety: Intelligent Systems, LLM Analytics and Operational Risk submission deadline 20 Oct 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 5964 | Submission Open
Keywords: artificial intelligence in aviation; aviation accident investigation; aviation safety; intelligent systems; large language models (LLMs); UAS accidents; unmanned aircraft systems
Advances in UAV Guidance, Navigation, and Control Through Acoustic Technologies
edited by and Dilmurat M. Azimov
submission deadline 22 Oct 2026 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2311 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAV acoustics; drone noise; acoustic sensing; sound propagation; noise mitigation; acoustic navigation passive localization; beamforming; environmental noise impact; multimodal state estimation
Cooperative Perception, Planning, and Control of Heterogeneous UAVs
edited by Yuan Yuan, Qian Zhang and
submission deadline 22 Oct 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1715 | Submission Open
Keywords: model-heterogeneous UAVs; function-heterogeneous UAVs; cooperative control; cooperative planning; cooperative perception; multi-source data Fusion; distributed control system; formation control; synergy robustness; motion constraint matching
(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))
Advances in Deep Learning for Drones and Its Applications: 3rd Edition
edited by , , Ho Seok Ahn and Chanoh Park
submission deadline 26 Oct 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 874 | Submission Open
Keywords: UAVs; aerial robots; drones; remote sensing; deep learning; deep neural networks; computer vision; robotic perception
Drones in Pest Management and Plant Disease Detecting: State of the Art, Achievements and Perspectives
edited by Zoran Stamenković, Aleksandar Ivezić and
submission deadline 28 Oct 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 5363 | Submission Open
Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicle; pest management; plant disease detection; precision agriculture; remote sensing; multispectral imaging; hyperspectral data; machine learning; crop monitoring; smart spraying
(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Agriculture and Forestry)
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