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Drones publishes Special Issues to create collections of papers on specific topics, with the aim of building a community of authors and readers to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas and research directions. Special Issues are led by Guest Editors, who are experts on the topic and all Special Issue submissions follow MDPI's standard editorial process. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief and/or designated Editorial Board Member will oversee Guest Editor appointments and Special Issue proposals, checking their content for relevance and ensuring the suitability of the material for the journal. The papers published in a Special Issue will be collected and displayed on a dedicated page of the journal’s website. Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies and Guest Editor responsibilities can be found here. For any inquiries related to a Special Issue, please contact the Editorial Office.

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Electric-Powered and Hybrid-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology and Applications of Low Altitude Aviation

edited by Wenbiao Gan, Zhou Zhou,

Saddam Aziz

and

Ilias Panagiotopoulos

submission deadline 26 Mar 2026 | 7 articles | Viewed by 17578 | Submission Open

Keywords: electric-powered aircraft; distributed power; UAV; optimization design; aerodynamics; artificial intelligence; green aviation; urban air mobility and delivery; low altitude economy

(This special issue belongs to the Section Innovative Urban Mobility)

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Applications in Critical Industrial Sectors

edited by

Dayi Zhang

, Gordon Dobie and

Jesus Enrique Sierra-Garcia

submission deadline 26 Mar 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 5166 | Submission Open

Keywords: advanced unmanned aerial vehicles; unmanned aerial vehicles in industrial sectors; autonomous UAV systems; UAV-based critical infrastructure monitoring; hazardous environment inspection using UAVs; UAV technology advancements; infrastructure maintenance using UAVs; UAV environmental impact assessment

Urban Air Mobility Solutions: UAVs for Smarter Cities

edited by

Sarah Hubbard

Damon Lercel

and

Cheng Wang

submission deadline 31 Mar 2026 | 8 articles | Viewed by 9993 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAM; UAV; smart cities; infrastructure; safety; funding; public policy; urban planning; emergency response; workforce

(This special issue belongs to the Section Innovative Urban Mobility)

Swarm Intelligence-Inspired Planning and Control for Drones

edited by

Kaiyu Qin

, Haitao Nie, Jinliang Shao,

and

submission deadline 31 Mar 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 5698 | Submission Open

Keywords: drone task and path planning; cooperative control; collision avoidance; swarm intelligence-based optimization; communication and coordination

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Intelligent Control and Optimization of Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

edited by Zongyang Lv, Qing Zhao and Hao Wei

submission deadline 31 Mar 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1681 | Submission Open

Keywords: eVTOL; UAV; optimal control; intelligent control; nonlinear control; fault-tolerant control

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Optimizing MIMO Systems for UAV Communication Networks

edited by Zheng Chu, De Mi and Berna Bulut Cebecioglu

submission deadline 31 Mar 2026 | Viewed by 150 | Submission Open

Keywords: MIMO systems; UAV communications networks; low-altitude economy; air-ground integrated communications; optimization; B5G/6G integration

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)

Advances in UAV Guidance, Navigation, and Control Through Acoustic Technologies

edited by

Evan Kawamura

and Dilmurat M. Azimov

submission deadline 1 Apr 2026 | Viewed by 115 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV acoustics; drone noise; acoustic sensing; sound propagation; noise mitigation; acoustic navigation passive localization; beamforming; environmental noise impact; multimodal state estimation

Advances in UAV-Based Remote Sensing for Climate-Smart Agriculture

edited by Hongquan Wang,

Taifeng Dong

and

Liming He

submission deadline 14 Apr 2026 | Viewed by 276 | Submission Open

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles; remote sensing; climate-smart agriculture; crop phenotyping; precision agriculture

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Agriculture and Forestry)

From Nature to Flight: Bio-Inspired UAV Design and Intelligence

edited by Chahat Deep Singh, J. Sean Humbert and Kaushik Jayaram

submission deadline 15 Apr 2026 | Viewed by 85 | Submission Open

Keywords: bio-inspired UAVs; aerial robotics; drone autonomy; energy-efficient UAVs; swarm intelligence; neuromorphic perception and control

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Recent Developments in Artificial Intelligence and Interdisciplinary Research for UAV Application

edited by Haokui Zhang, Liang Wang, Jingtao Sun and Xizhe Xue

submission deadline 16 Apr 2026 | 7 articles | Viewed by 13752 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV platform; image processing; large language model; visual language model; UAV communication; UAVs in socio-economic development

Mission Planning, Perception and Control for Drones in Wide-Area Operations

edited by

Weiran Yao

, Xiangyu Shao, Yuehua Liu, Liming Xin and Jiatao Ding

submission deadline 17 Apr 2026 | 5 articles | Viewed by 14629 | Submission Open

Keywords: motion control and path planning for wide-area operating drones; mission planning for wide-area operating drones; task decomposition and allocation for wide-area operating drones; simultaneous localization and mapping in a complex environment; vision recognition and detection; intelligent perception techniques; model-based predictive control for intelligent systems; robust control; sliding mode control; and adaptive control; deep learning and reinforcement learning; architecture for learning and control integration; advanced decision and control methods for unmanned systems; intelligent swarm and formation

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Advances in Cartography, Mission Planning, Path Search, and Path Following for Drones: 2nd Edition

edited by

Adrian Marius Deaconu

Razvan Udroiu

and Delia Elena Spridon

submission deadline 20 Apr 2026 | Viewed by 132 | Submission Open

Keywords: drone; UAV; cartography; path following; mission planning; machine learning; sensor fusion; data acquisition

Drone-Based Wildlife Protection, Monitoring, and Conservation Management：2nd Edition

edited by

Humberto Perotto-Baldivieso

and

Aaron M. Foley

submission deadline 26 Apr 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 20332 | Submission Open

Keywords: habitat monitoring; LiDAR; population estimation; thermal; wildlife conservation; wildlife management; wildlife monitoring; wildlife species detection

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)

Artificial Intelligence-Driven Drones Systems for Marine Engineering Applications

edited by

Bo Li

, Jia Ren,

Kaifang Wan

and Yani Cui

submission deadline 30 Apr 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 531 | Submission Open

Keywords: drone applications; deep learning and reinforcement learning; marine engineering; vision-based perception; multimodal perception; environmental monitoring; autonomous navigation; air– sea coordination

(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))

Advancing UAV-Based Remote Sensing: Innovations, Techniques and Applications

edited by Rui Li, Yinxia Cao, Haoyang Yang and Dongyu Li

submission deadline 15 May 2026 | Viewed by 578 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV remote sensing; drone path planning; image enhancement; multispectral and hyperspectral imaging; thermal remote sensing; precision mapping; data fusion techniques; environmental monitoring; disaster response applications; machine learning in UAV data analysis

IoT-Enabled UAV Networks for Secure Communication

edited by Bing Chen,

Changyan Yi

Kun Zhu

, Yutao Jiao and Zhiyi Tian

submission deadline 21 May 2026 | 3 articles | Viewed by 5512 | Submission Open

Keywords: Internet of Things (IoT); unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); flying ad hoc networks (FANET); drones; ground control station (GCS)

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)

Advanced Flight Dynamics and Decision-Making for UAV Operations

edited by

Paraskevi Zacharia

Antreas Kantaros

, Elias K. Xidias and

Antoni Grau

submission deadline 31 May 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 869 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV flight dynamics; autonomous control; decision-making; machine learning; reinforcement learning; neural networks; UAV simulation; swarm UAVs; 3D Printing; UAV design; additive manufacturing

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Rapid Disaster Assessment and Post-Disaster Recovery Using UAV Remote Sensing

edited by

Alessio Calantropio

Vincenzo Di Pietra

and

Miguel Angel Maté-González

submission deadline 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 563 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV photogrammetry; rapid mapping; disaster response; post-disaster recovery; change detection; AI and remote sensing; multi-sensor platforms; emergency mapping; UAV-GIS integration; damage assessment

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)

Advanced Optimization Strategies for UAV Mission Planning and Operation

edited by

Emanuele Luigi de Angelis

Fabrizio Giulietti

and Giulio Avanzini

submission deadline 31 May 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 381 | Submission Open

Keywords: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); autonomous aerial systems; mission planning and scheduling; trajectory optimization; payload allocation and optimization; multi-UAV coordination; optimization algorithms; heuristic and metaheuristic methods; energy-efficient UAV operations; autonomous decision-making

(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))

Distributed Control, Optimization, and Game of UAV Swarm Systems (2nd Edition)

edited by Zhi Feng, Rui Yan,

Yishi Liu

, Xiaoduo Li and Qing Wang

submission deadline 12 Jun 2026 | 5 articles | Viewed by 16154 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV swarm systems; distributed control; formation control; distributed optimization; intelligent motion planning; swarm game; distributed Nash equilibrium seeking

Cooperative Perception, Planning, and Control of Heterogeneous UAVs

edited by Yuan Yuan, Qian Zhang and

Huanhuan Yuan

submission deadline 15 Jun 2026 | Viewed by 21 | Submission Open

Keywords: model-heterogeneous UAVs; function-heterogeneous UAVs; cooperative control; cooperative planning; cooperative perception; multi-source data Fusion; distributed control system; formation control; synergy robustness; motion constraint matching

(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))

Drones for Wildfire and Prescribed Fire Science 2nd Edition

edited by Brian Gullett, Pantelis Velanas and Katerina Margariti

submission deadline 24 Jun 2026 | Viewed by 50 | Submission Open

Keywords: unmanned aircraft systems; drones; wildland fire; fire dynamics; sensors; firefighter safety; plume dispersion; meteorological measurements; fire emissions; exposure risk; fire prevention; fire response; post-fire ecological restoration

Advances in Intelligent Coordination Control for Autonomous UUVs

edited by Haitao Zhang, Bin-Bin Hu,

Zhenghong Jin

, Mingkang Long and Henglai Wei

submission deadline 25 Jun 2026 | 4 articles | Viewed by 5828 | Submission Open

Keywords: cooperative control; autonomous underwater unmanned vehicles; decision making; game theory; machine learning; control theory; distributed optimization; intelligent connected vehicles; vehicle dynamics control

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Advancing Space-Air-Ground-Sea Integrated Networks in Drones: Techniques, Applications, and Future Directions

edited by

Dawei Wang

Hongbo Zhao

and Li Li

submission deadline 30 Jun 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 537 | Submission Open

Keywords: drone-enabled SAGSINs; 6G networks; integrated space-air-ground-sea communications; cooperative transmission; cross-domain resource scheduling; mobility management; edge computing in drone networks; security and privacy in drone-enabled networks

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)

Advances in Drone Applications for Last-Mile Delivery Operations

edited by

and

submission deadline 30 Jun 2026 | Viewed by 94 | Submission Open

Keywords: drone delivery; last-mile logistics; (AI-based) planning & scheduling ; AS/RS integration; Packaging ; payload management ; energy efficiency ; insurance; sustainability

(This special issue belongs to the Section Innovative Urban Mobility)

UAVs for Nature Conservation Tasks in Complex Environments

edited by Tom Richardson, Ulrik Pagh Schultz Lundquist and

Fabio Remondino

submission deadline 1 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 2142 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV/MAV; perception; collaborative; wildlife; complex environments; navigation; mapping; real-time

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drones in Ecology)

When Deep Learning Meets Geometry for Air-to-Ground Perception on Drones: 2nd Edition

edited by

Dongdong Li

, Yangliu Kuai, Hongqi Fan and Gongjian Wen

submission deadline 29 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1740 | Submission Open

Keywords: object detection ; object tracking ; object localization ; object segmentation ; vision foundation models ; multimodal data processing

Wearable Technologies for Driving Drones: Innovations and Applications

edited by

Cristian Randieri

Andrea Tortorelli

and Bojan Jerbić

submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | 1 articles | Viewed by 4210 | Submission Open

Keywords: wearable technology; drone control systems; human– drone interaction; bio-sensing; gesture recognition; haptic feedback; robotics; augmented reality (AR); virtual reality (VR); ergonomics in drone piloting

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Design and Development)

Drones and the Internet of Things: Enabling Connected Airspace

edited by

Riccardo Marini

, Bernabe Matteo and Enrico Testi

submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 60 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV communications; internet of things; aerial networks; AI-native UAV systems; edge Computing for UAVs; network optimization for UAVs; non terrestrial networks; new architecture and services for UAV networks; secure UAV communications; massive multiple access for UAV networks; modulation and coding for UAV networks

(This special issue belongs to the Section Drone Communications)

Security-by-Design in UAVs: Enabling Intelligent Monitoring

edited by

Lei Shi

, Yi Zhou,

Xuhui Bu

and Lingling Lv

submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 31 | Submission Open

Keywords: multi-UAV systems; security-by-design; cybersecurity; relative localization; autonomous navigation; cooperative control; privacy protection; intelligent monitoring

(This special issue belongs to the Section Artificial Intelligence in Drones (AID))

Design and Development of UAV Systems for Logistics Networks and Operations

edited by

Andreas Schwung

Stefan Lier

João Paulo Javidi da Costa

and Edison Pignaton De Freitas

submission deadline 31 Jul 2026 | Viewed by 4 | Submission Open

Keywords: UAV; advanced communication systems; cybersecurity; intelligent transportation; smart logistics; autonomous distribution; machine learning; integration with augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR); swarm systems; sensor intelligence

Autonomy Challenges in Unmanned Aviation

edited by

Kimon P. Valavanis

and Anthony Tzes

submission deadline 31 Oct 2026 | Viewed by 137 | Submission Open

Keywords: unmanned aviation; autonomy; learning-based navigation and control; UAS design for robustness and resilience; NextGen UAS

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