Unconventional Drone-Based Surveying 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

The success of the MDPI Drones Special Issue “Unconventional Drone-Based Surveying” led us to propose a new Special Issue entitled “Unconventional Drone-Based Surveying 2nd Edition”, for which we are pleased to invite you to submit original contributions.

First, we must specify that in this Special Issue, the term "drone" refers to any unmanned object that can be used for surveying, thus encompassing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) (whether a boat or even a terrestrial vehicle), Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs), and even an element of a system in which two or more of these types of drones, or even of drones different types (e.g., UAVs and USVs), jointly operate.

This Special Issue aims to collect papers addressing all kinds of problems encountered in unconventional drone-based surveying. Given that any type of sensor can be considered, with no limits other than the condition that the operations must be performed safely (including, but not limited to, cameras for Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry (SfM); thermal infrared sensors; multispectral or hyperspectral sensors; compact LiDAR; microphones; and sonars), papers may adopt the aims of

• providing new methods for data analysis, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses;
• proposing new applications;
• proposing new configurations of drones or systems of drones;
• proposing new guidance systems and/or survey planning which, in compliance with current regulations, confer greater (or also total) autonomy onto the drone;
• addressing issues related to drone behavior in challenging environments and/or challenging weather conditions;
• studying the problems inherent in the use of swarms of drones (not necessarily of the same type) to perform a given mission or problems inherent in the use of one or more drones in environments where there are other drones operated by third parties or even completely autonomous drones;
• other original miscellaneous approaches.

As a rule, only papers concerning the successful application of a technique or methodology in its final version will be published. However, papers devoted to problem analysis that are of interest to researchers and practitioners are also welcome. Contributions describing new methods for fast and low-cost observation and monitoring are particularly encouraged.

Papers concerning any type of new application of interest are welcome under the condition that the research is carried out in an unconventional manner. The areas of interest for these applications can vary from architecture to environmental, atmospheric, volcanic, geological, seismological, civil engineering and agricultural fields. Papers on laboratory experiments will also be considered if they fit the criteria listed above.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Remote Sensing.

Dr. Arianna Pesci
Dr. Giordano Teza
Dr. Massimo Fabris
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.