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Drones
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Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition
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Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition

A Special Issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X) belonging to the section "Drone Design and Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (18 June 2026) | Viewed by 4105

Editors

Prof. Dr. Ni Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710071, China
2. National Key Laboratory of Aircraft Configuration Design, Xi’an 710071, China
Interests: UAV swarm control; intelligent flight control; navigation and guidance; aircraft perception and decision
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Ban Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
Interests: aircraft flight dynamics and control; UAV
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Shuhui Bu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China
Interests: computer vision and machine learning; UAV
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico Tech, Weir Hall, Room 208, Socorro, NM 87801-4796, USA
Interests: aerospace engineering; Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS); drones and autonomous systems; bio-inspired robotics; biomimetics; flight dynamics and control; guidance, navigation, and control; reinforcement learning for robotics; autonomous navigation; swarm robotics; multi-agent systems; experimental aerodynamics; Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD); aircraft design; High-Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS); airships; space robotics; planetary exploration; ground and aerial robotics; human–robot interaction; intelligent control systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Special Issue of Drones on “Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition”. 

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly popular and important in various applications, such as search, rescue, and delivery services, and, as technology advances, UAVs are expected to have even more versatile applications. However, the development of UAVs heavily relies on their dynamics modeling and conceptual design, which are critical for ensuring their performance, reliability, and safety.

Dynamics modeling of UAVs involves mathematical and computational models that capture the physical behaviors and interactions of UAVs with their environments. It helps researchers and engineers better understand the dynamics of UAVs and design control systems that can stabilize and control the UAVs in different mission scenarios. Meanwhile, conceptual design is the early stage of UAV design, where the UAVs' overall configuration, shape, and size are determined based on mission requirements and technical constraints. It directly affects the performance and capabilities of UAVs.

Given the crucial importance of dynamics modeling and conceptual design for UAVs, this Special Issue explores recent advances and challenges in this research area. The aim is to provide a platform for researchers and experts to share their latest findings, exchange ideas and insights, and enhance collaborations.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) that provide insights into new developments in the dynamic modeling and conceptual design of advanced UAVs. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, aerodynamic UAV modeling, system identification and parameter estimation, development of control strategies for UAV stabilization and control, multi-disciplinary UAV design optimization, and design and analysis of novel UAV concepts and configurations.

The contributions to this Special Issue cover a wide range of topics related to UAV dynamics modeling and conceptual design including, but not limited to, the following:

Aerodynamic modeling of UAVs;

System identification and parameter estimation of UAVs;

Development of control strategies for UAV stabilization and control;

Multi-disciplinary design optimization of UAVs;

Design and analysis of novel UAV concepts and configurations.

We believe this Special Issue will serve as a valuable reference and source of inspiration for researchers and practitioners involved in UAV dynamics modeling and conceptual design. We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Ni Li
Dr. Ban Wang
Prof. Dr. Shuhui Bu
Dr. Mostafa Hassanalian
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • dynamics modeling
  • conceptual design
  • UAV control
  • strategies
  • system identification

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

22 pages, 1356 KB  
Article
Attitude and 6-DOF Rigid Motion Reconstruction of Quadrotor Aerial Vehicle Based on Quaternions and Lie Group Algorithms
by Zdravko Terze, Dario Zlatar, Marko Kasalo and Marijan Andrić
Drones 2026, 10(9), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10090693 (registering DOI) - 13 Sep 2026
Abstract
The nonlinear nature of quadrotor dynamics requires high-fidelity reconstruction of vehicle position and attitude. In order to mitigate singularities associated with global three-parameter representations—such as Euler angles—the quadrotor attitude is conventionally parameterized via unit quaternions and reconstructed by integrating quaternion differential equations. However, [...] Read more.
The nonlinear nature of quadrotor dynamics requires high-fidelity reconstruction of vehicle position and attitude. In order to mitigate singularities associated with global three-parameter representations—such as Euler angles—the quadrotor attitude is conventionally parameterized via unit quaternions and reconstructed by integrating quaternion differential equations. However, the standard quaternion integration procedure is structure non-preserving. It is based on a set of linear differential equations that subsequently enforces the unitary norm of the quaternion through additional algebraic equations. To this end, the paper presents the utilization of the recently introduced structure-preserving attitude and position update algorithms, based on Lie groups, that overcome the drawbacks of the standard procedures. The numerical test cases involve UAV performing five different maneuvers. It is shown that conventional algorithms may suffer from instabilities and errors in kinematical update of position and attitude, which can be circumvented by using the geometric structure-preserving (Lie group-based) algorithms presented here. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition)
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29 pages, 4954 KB  
Article
Task-Constraint-Embedded Lightweight Structural Overall Design and Validation of UAVs for Air-Ground Collaborative Missions
by Zhengyang Cao and Liang Wang
Drones 2026, 10(8), 595; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10080595 - 3 Aug 2026
Viewed by 335
Abstract
Air-ground collaborative missions impose coupled constraints on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including restricted platform envelopes, rapid payload reconfiguration, transient interface impacts, and center of gravity (CG) shifts. Conventional serial design workflows fixing overall layout before local lightweighting are insufficient to satisfy structural mass [...] Read more.
Air-ground collaborative missions impose coupled constraints on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including restricted platform envelopes, rapid payload reconfiguration, transient interface impacts, and center of gravity (CG) shifts. Conventional serial design workflows fixing overall layout before local lightweighting are insufficient to satisfy structural mass reduction, interface safety, and attitude recovery requirements simultaneously. This study proposes a task-constraint-embedded multi-level lightweight structural design method for UAVs operating with ground mobile platforms. The layout-evaluation framework incorporates ground-platform envelope limits, UAV payload distribution, CG migration, and attitude-stability requirements through a hierarchical screening and score-based selection process. Mass reduction rate, CG shift, and layout compactness are used as the main layout-evaluation indicators, and a feasible layout is selected for subsequent structural zoning and verification. Subsequently, the airframe is partitioned into load-bearing, non-load-bearing, and interface zones, for which main-skeleton topology optimization, honeycomb sandwich lightweighting, and local interface reinforcement are applied, respectively. The optimized prototype is validated through finite-element simulation, interface-impact testing, and full-scale flight trials. Relative to the defined traditional baseline, the selected design reduces the whole-airframe mass by 19.2%, limits the payload-switching-induced CG shift to 2.80 cm, and shortens the attitude-settling time by 39.7%. The main verification indicators show simulation-test deviations below 4.2% for the selected layout and representative verification cases. These results indicate that embedding task-specific constraints into the overall layout-evaluation stage can improve the balance among lightweighting, interface-load resistance, and dynamic-stability requirements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition)
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20 pages, 3773 KB  
Article
Nonlinear Modeling and Energy-Based Flight Control of a Coaxial VTOL UAV with Independent Thrust Vectoring for Autonomous Landing Maneuvers
by J. E. Durán-Delfín, C. D. García-Beltrán, M. E. Guerrero-Sánchez, H. Abaunza, O. Hernández-González and G. Valencia-Palomo
Drones 2026, 10(7), 512; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10070512 - 4 Jul 2026
Viewed by 524
Abstract
This work presents a nonlinear dynamic model and an energy-based control strategy for a coaxial vertical take-off and landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with independently tilting propulsion units. The proposed model captures the full six-degree-of-freedom motion of the vehicle and explicitly incorporates [...] Read more.
This work presents a nonlinear dynamic model and an energy-based control strategy for a coaxial vertical take-off and landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) equipped with independently tilting propulsion units. The proposed model captures the full six-degree-of-freedom motion of the vehicle and explicitly incorporates the forces and moments produced by the coaxial thrust-vectoring propulsion system, as well as the additional force components induced by the two-degree-of-freedom thrust vectoring mechanism. To regulate the vehicle during hover, cruise, and transition maneuvers, a passivity-based control framework formulated in terms of unit quaternions is developed. The control law simultaneously stabilizes the translational and rotational subsystems without relying on model linearization. In order to map the virtual control forces and torques into physically realizable actuator commands, a nonlinear control allocation procedure is introduced. This allocation scheme enables independent angular positioning of the propulsion units while computing the corresponding motor angular velocities. The effectiveness of the proposed modeling and control framework is assessed through three-dimensional dynamic simulations and numerical experiments, demonstrating accurate trajectory tracking, autonomous UAV landing capabilities, and smooth transitions between flight regimes for thrust-vectored UAV platforms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition)
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38 pages, 10453 KB  
Article
Aerostructural Optimization of a Composite Low Reynolds Wing Using Surrogate Modeling Techniques
by Eleftherios Nikolaou, Spyridon Kilimtzidis, Panagiota Kelverkloglou, Vaios Lappas and Vassilis Kostopoulos
Drones 2026, 10(5), 352; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10050352 - 7 May 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 955
Abstract
This study presents an aerostructural optimization framework for the preliminary design of a low-Reynolds-number composite UAV wing, aiming to simultaneously enhance aerodynamic efficiency and structural performance. While previous work has primarily addressed aerodynamic optimization in isolation, the present approach integrates Computational Fluid Dynamics [...] Read more.
This study presents an aerostructural optimization framework for the preliminary design of a low-Reynolds-number composite UAV wing, aiming to simultaneously enhance aerodynamic efficiency and structural performance. While previous work has primarily addressed aerodynamic optimization in isolation, the present approach integrates Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Method (FEM) analyses within a surrogate-based optimization (SBO) framework. The design space includes both aerodynamic parameters—aspect ratio, taper ratio, sweep angle, and twist—and structural variables related to the internal wing layout and component thicknesses. To reduce the computational cost associated with high-fidelity simulations, Kriging surrogate models are employed in conjunction with an Expected Improvement (EI) infill strategy, enabling efficient exploration of the coupled design space. The framework is evaluated through multiple independent optimization runs using different initial sampling strategies, demonstrating consistent convergence toward feasible high-performance designs. The surrogate models exhibit strong predictive capability, as confirmed by Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Leave-One-Out (LOO) cross-validation metrics. The results indicate that aerodynamic variables, particularly aspect ratio and twist, are the primary drivers of range performance. However, structural variables—most notably skin thickness—strongly influence constraint satisfaction, especially with respect to buckling and strength requirements, and therefore play a key role in defining the feasible design space. The optimal configuration achieves a maximum range of approximately 203 km while satisfying all strength, stiffness, and aerodynamic constraints. Overall, the proposed methodology provides an efficient and robust tool for the early-stage aerostructural design of low-Reynolds-number UAV wings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition)
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32 pages, 11277 KB  
Article
Flight-Envelope-Based Aerodynamic Load Assessment and Composite Material Selection for a Hybrid VTOL UAV
by Gabriel Petre Badea, Daniel Eugeniu Crunteanu and Mădălin Dombrovschi
Drones 2026, 10(5), 348; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10050348 - 5 May 2026
Viewed by 1488
Abstract
This study presents a flight-envelope-based methodology for aerodynamic load assessment and composite material selection applied to a hybrid fixed-wing tri-rotor VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A certification-oriented maneuver and gust envelope was established to define the critical load cases. [...] Read more.
This study presents a flight-envelope-based methodology for aerodynamic load assessment and composite material selection applied to a hybrid fixed-wing tri-rotor VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). A certification-oriented maneuver and gust envelope was established to define the critical load cases. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations of the full aircraft at nominal cruise were performed to determine global aerodynamic coefficients and distributed pressure fields, including interference effects from the fuselage and externally mounted VTOL system. A complementary wing-only angle-of-attack study was used to characterize lift, drag, and chordwise pressure distributions over the relevant incidence range. Critical envelope points were mapped to equivalent aerodynamic states in terms of lift coefficient and angle of attack, enabling a quasi-steady correlation between certification loads and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) results. In parallel, carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminates were experimentally evaluated under tensile, open-hole tensile, and flexural loading. The results indicate that, within the two investigated laminate configurations, the [0°/90°] CFRP laminate provides the more suitable strength and stiffness for primary wing structures, while off-axis laminates are better suited for secondary regions. The proposed workflow links flight-envelope definition, aerodynamic analysis, and material selection, providing a basis for preliminary structural design. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition)
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Review

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42 pages, 43127 KB  
Review
Stable Near-Ground Hovering and Grasping with Rotary-Wing UAVs Equipped with Flexible Manipulators: A Review
by Pengcheng Duan, Yueneng Yang, Yunbao Fan and Xiangen Tang
Drones 2026, 10(9), 694; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10090694 (registering DOI) - 13 Sep 2026
Abstract
As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions expand from aerial inspection and environmental sensing to physical interaction and autonomous manipulation, rotary-wing UAVs equipped with flexible manipulators offer a promising platform for contact-rich operations in complex environments. Among these tasks, stable near-ground hovering and the [...] Read more.
As unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions expand from aerial inspection and environmental sensing to physical interaction and autonomous manipulation, rotary-wing UAVs equipped with flexible manipulators offer a promising platform for contact-rich operations in complex environments. Among these tasks, stable near-ground hovering and the grasping of ground targets are particularly challenging because they involve ground-effect aerodynamics, rigid–flexible coupling, and mode transitions caused by contact and load transfer. This review provides a structured, task-oriented critical synthesis of advances in this interdisciplinary field. First, system configurations are classified by aerial-platform architecture, manipulator type, mounting arrangement, and end-effector design, and the suitability of rigid-link, compliant, continuum, and soft manipulation mechanisms for near-ground grasping is assessed. Next, modeling approaches for rotor ground effect, coupled rigid–flexible dynamics, hybrid contact and load-transfer dynamics, model identification, and model reduction are reviewed. Trajectory planning, coordinated stabilization, impedance control, hybrid force/position control, and switching control are then compared across free flight, contact establishment, and payload-carrying hover. Although the reviewed literature provides a substantial theoretical foundation for aerial manipulation, continuum robotics, and multirotor ground effect, direct evidence remains limited for methods that jointly address near-ground aerodynamics, large flexible deformation, and contact-induced load transfer across the complete near-ground grasping sequence with integrated experimental validation. Based on these evidence gaps, this review identifies multiphysics reduced-order modeling and event-driven hybrid control as author-synthesized directions for future investigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamics Modeling and Conceptual Design of UAVs—2nd Edition)
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