Innovative Applications of UAVs in Search and Rescue: Improving Safety and Effectiveness
A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 543
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mechanical engineering
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have seen considerable development in recent years. Their increasing employment across diverse applications is frequently reported in both specialized publications as well as in public media flows. Among all possible missions, Search and Rescue (SAR) address the fundamental need to protect and preserve human life during emergencies and disasters. UAVs have the potential to transform the landscape of search and rescue (SAR) operations, offering real-time situational awareness, rapid deployment, and minimized risk to human responders. From natural disaster response to complex urban rescue missions, drone technology could deliver unprecedented capabilities for surveying hazardous areas, detecting survivors, and supporting emergency personnel in time-critical scenarios. Despite these advances, challenges persist regarding flight endurance, sensor integration, regulatory frameworks, and coordinated multi-drone operations.
This Special Issue of Drones (MDPI) invites original research papers, review articles, and case studies showcasing innovative UAV-based SAR strategies, System-of-Systems (SoS) and system architectures, and field deployments. Submissions should explore novel techniques that improve system architecture exploration, efficiency and mission effectiveness, reduce operational costs, and enhance responder safety. Interdisciplinary contributions drawing on robotics, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and communications are particularly welcome.
Potential themes include, but are not limited to:
* System of Systems simulation, analysis and evaluation
* System of Systems architecting and architecture alternatives exploration
* Advanced sensing and imaging: Thermal, hyperspectral, or LiDAR applications for improved detection and mapping
* Concepts of Operation, navigation and control: mission and task planning, AI-driven algorithms for obstacle avoidance, path planning, and swarm coordination
* Manned-Unmanned teaming: interoperability, communication and situational awareness, ergonomic interfaces and decision-support systems for seamless coordination with ground crews
* Real-time data processing: Machine learning and edge computing methods for on-board situational assessment
* Regulatory and ethical considerations: Airspace integration, privacy, and societal implications of UAV deployment
Dr. Kristian Amadori
Dr. Christopher Jouannet
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
- search and rescue (SAR)
- unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
- drone technology
- system of systems (SoS)
- sensor integration
- real-time data processing
- multi-UAV Coordination
- autonomy and AI
- situational awareness
- flight safety and regulation
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