Recent Developments in Artificial Intelligence and Interdisciplinary Research for UAV Application

Dear Colleagues,

Due to their efficiency, flexibility, and versatility, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely applied in various fields, including environmental monitoring, agriculture, urban planning, geological exploration, and security surveilance. In these applications, artificial intelligence technology has always provided crucial support.

In recent years, with breakthrough advancements in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, the development of artificial intelligence technology has entered a new phase. Unlike previous artificial intelligence models that used discriminative architectures, LLMs adopt a recursive generative architecture, in which they generate results by predicting the next token, offering greater flexibility. VLMs also integrate visual information into LLMs, enhancing their multimodal capabilities. These new technologies create new possibilities for key technologies and fields of UAV application. Very recently, researchers have explored the incorporation of LLMs into UAV applications, such as UAV image analysis and UAV communication systems, achieving promising performance metrics and demonstrating significant potential. However, at present, the application of these new technologies in the UAV field is still limited, and their full potential has yet to be realized. On the other hand, applying these new technologies to various aspects of UAVs still presents numerous challenges. For example, in the image domain, UAVs enable multiple modalities of images with different perspectives from common views. In the communication domain, UAVs with higher real-time performance and stronger anti-interference capabilities are required.

Moreover, as UAVs continue to evolve technologically, their impact on socio-economic development is becoming increasingly significant. Emerging research is now exploring the role of UAVs in economic and social contexts, for example, analyses of the UAV industry’s geographic distribution and identifying its influencing factors, as well as investigations into the innovation networks that drive UAV industry growth. These topics not only extend the technical frontiers of UAV research but also provide critical insights into how UAV applications contribute to regional development and industrial innovation.

To advance the application of new AI technologies in UAVs, this Special Issue aims to provide a platform for researchers to share their latest findings and engage in discussions on the opportunities, challenges, and solutions associated with integrating AI into UAV applications. In addition to technical advancements in image analysis, communication systems, and multimodal data processing, we encourage submissions that address the economic and social dimensions of UAV industries. By bridging technical innovation with socio-economic research, we hope that this Special Issue will also foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

This Special Issue welcomes high-quality submissions that provide the research community with the most recent advancements in artificial intelligence for UAV applications and interdisciplinary collaboration, including, but not limited to, the following topics:

• UAV image super-resolution.
• UAV image-based object detection/segmentation/classification.
• UAV image-based multimodal fusion.
• UAV object tracking.
• Lightweight perception model for UAV platform.
• VLM-based human–UAV interactions.
• Adversarial attacks on and defenses for UAV time-series data.
• Software engineering and software security for UAVs.
• LLM-based UAV communications.
• Economic- and social-dimension research into UAV industries.

We look forward to receiving your original research articles and reviews.

Prof. Dr. Haokui Zhang
Dr. Liang Wang
Dr. Jingtao Sun
Dr. Xizhe Xue
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• UAV platform
• image processing
• large language model
• visual language model
• UAV communication
• UAVs in socio-economic development