Advances and Innovations in Drone Technology for Mining and Construction Applications
A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 19 December 2025 | Viewed by 901
Special Issue Editors
Interests: mining; mineral resources; sustainable mining; smart mining; green mining
Interests: social infra-structure (civil engineering, architecture, disaster pre-vention); disas-ter prevention engineering; energy; earth resource engi-neering; energy science
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: mining engineering; hyperspectral imaging; machine learning; mineral processing; remote sensing
Interests: solar energy; IoT; rock mechanics; mine power systems
Interests: mining technology; InSAR; monitoring; coal; geophysical image processing; minerals; mining; mobile robots; remote sensing; synthetic aperture radar; CW radar; FM radar; image classification; radar imaging; robot vision; clay; collision avoidance; image segmentation; navigation; object detection; radar interface
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid evolution of drone technology has brought transformative changes to the mining and construction industries, offering unprecedented opportunities for efficiency, safety, and sustainability. We invite submissions for this Special Issue exploring the latest advancements in and practical applications of drones (UAVs) to address critical challenges in these dynamic sectors, including the following:
- Terrain modeling, stockpile volumetrics, and real-time progress monitoring.
- Remote inspections of hazardous sites (e.g., unstable slopes, highwalls) to reduce human risk.
- Autonomous flight, predictive analytics, and automated defect detection using aerial data.
- The monitoring of rehabilitation, erosion, and biodiversity impacts.
- Coordination with the IoT, robotics, and digital twins for workflow optimization.
This Special Issue invites researchers and industry professionals to share their insights, case studies, and innovations, fostering a deeper understanding of how drone technology is shaping the future of mining and construction. We welcome original research, reviews, and technical reports that highlight both challenges and breakthroughs in this rapidly advancing field.
Dr. Yewuhalashet Fissha
Dr. Hajime Ikeda
Dr. Natsuo Okada
Dr. Abhishek Kumar Tripathi
Dr. Debashish Chakravarty
Dr. Muhammad Zaka Emad
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
- drone technology (or UAV/UAS)
- aerial surveying and mapping
- mining automation
- construction monitoring
- AI and machine learning in drones
- safety and hazard inspection
- environmental rehabilitation
- digitalization in industry
- rescue robotics and robotic mapping (UAV and terrestrial)
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
