From Nature to Flight: Bio-Inspired UAV Design and Intelligence
A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Drone Design and Development".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 April 2026 | Viewed by 48
Special Issue Editors
Interests: drone autonomy; minimal perception and computer vision
Interests: autonomous navigation; UAS flight mechanics; control; system identification; bio-inspired sensory processing
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become indispensable tools in diverse domains, ranging from environmental monitoring and precision agriculture to disaster response and defense applications. While remarkable progress has been made in control algorithms, sensing, and design, UAVs still face fundamental challenges in achieving robust autonomy, energy efficiency, and adaptability in complex environments. Nature offers a wealth of inspiration for addressing these challenges, as biological systems exhibit unparalleled efficiency, resilience, and intelligence. By drawing on bio-inspired principles—such as neuromorphic intelligence, flapping-wing locomotion, swarm intelligence, parsimonious perception and control, and adaptive morphology—researchers can develop UAVs that transcend current technological limitations.
The goal of this Special Issue is to collect papers (original research articles and review papers) to give insights about bio-inspired approached to UAV autonomy and design. By bridging robotics, biology, perception, artificial intelligence and control systems, this Special Issue seeks to advance the next generation of UAV technologies and provide a platform for interdisciplinary contributions that align with the journal’s scope in advancing innovative UAV research and applications.
This Special Issue will welcome manuscripts in a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Bio-inspired autonomy, including perception, navigation, and decision-making.
- Flight mechanisms, morphologies, and design derived from nature.
- Energy efficiency in bio-inspired UAVs
- Bio-inspired collective and swarm behaviors for multi-UAV systems.
- Neuromorphic sensors, processing and integration.
We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.
Prof. Dr. Chahat Deep Singh
Prof. Dr. Sean Humbert
Dr. Kaushik Jayaram
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. 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
- bio-inspired UAVs
- aerial robotics
- drone autonomy
- energy-efficient UAVs
- swarm intelligence
- neuromorphic perception and control
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