Advances in Cartography, Mission Planning, Path Search, and Path Following for Drones

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid advancement and proliferation of drone technology have ushered in a new era of possibilities and challenges in fields such as cartography, surveillance, delivery services, environmental monitoring, and agriculture. The development of sophisticated algorithms and systems for mission planning, including path search, path planning, and path following, will help us to maximize drones’ potential.

This Special Issue seeks to showcase the latest innovations in these areas, providing insights into the future of drone operations and their potential impact on society.

We are seeking original, unpublished manuscripts that are not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions should clearly articulate the novelty of the research, its practical implications, and how it advances the field of drone navigation and mission planning. All accepted manuscripts will undergo a rigorous peer-review process.

The primary objective of this Special Issue is to highlight cutting-edge research and developments that address the complexities of drone navigation and mission execution in diverse environments. It will gather contributions from academia, industry, and government agencies, fostering a multidisciplinary dialogue on improving drone efficiency, effectiveness, and safety.

We are particularly interested in manuscripts that draw connections between the following topics:

• The cartography of terrain, geomagnetic fields, lapse rates, pollution, agriculture, archaeological features, weather (e.g. temperature, pressure, wind), etc.
• Sensor fusion for advanced navigation and positioning of drones, e.g., Kalman filters, machine learning.
• Data acquisition by drones.
• Collaborative drones that facilitate faster and more accurate task completion.
• Advanced communication and data transfer between drones and bases.
• Machine learning in pathfinding and mission accomplishment.
• Precision agriculture, infrastructure inspection, and urban planning.
• Advanced algorithms for path planning, mission planning, path search, and path following.
• Drones in emergency response scenarios.
• Drones and Internet of things.
• Advanced drone package-delivery systems.
• Collision avoidance and safety.

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

Dr. Adrian Deaconu
Dr. Razvan Udroiu
Dr. Delia Elena Spridon
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-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.