Guidance, Navigation and Control for UAVs

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have rapidly evolved from military tools into indispensable assets across a wide range of civilian, commercial, and scientific applications. From precision agriculture and environmental monitoring to infrastructure inspection and emergency response, UAVs are transforming the way we observe, interact with, and manage complex systems in both urban and remote environments.

At the heart of UAV effectiveness lies the domain of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC), which determines how autonomously, safely, and efficiently these platforms can operate in dynamic and uncertain environments. Advances in sensors, onboard processing, AI, and cooperative control have enabled UAVs to perform increasingly complex tasks, from swarming and formation flight to real-time obstacle avoidance and precision landing in GNSS-denied environments. However, ensuring robust, adaptive, and scalable GNC remains a significant challenge, especially as UAVs are deployed in heterogeneous, cluttered, or adversarial settings.

This Special Issue invites original research papers and comprehensive review articles addressing the latest advancements, novel methodologies, and experimental validations in the field of UAV GNC systems. Contributions that push the boundaries of autonomous flight, enhance safety and precision, and promote the practical deployment of UAVs in real-world missions are especially encouraged.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

* Novel guidance and control algorithms for fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and hybrid UAVs;

* GNSS-denied or degraded-environment navigation;

* Sensor fusion techniques for UAV localization;

* Fault-tolerant and -resilient control systems;

* Vision-based and LiDAR-based navigation and control;

* Autonomous path planning and trajectory optimization;

* Cooperative guidance and swarm control;

* AI and machine learning applications in UAV GNC;

* Real-time embedded systems and edge computing for UAV control;

* Experimental platforms, simulations, and field deployments.

We look forward to your valuable contributions to this Special Issue, which aims to advance the scientific and engineering foundation of UAV autonomy and control.

Dr. Murat Bakirci
Guest Editor

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