Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): Innovations and Applications

A special issue of Inventions (ISSN 2411-5134). This special issue belongs to the section "Inventions and Innovation in Advanced Manufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 December 2026 | Viewed by 1097

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
School of Aerospace, Transportation and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
Interests: NDT; composite materials; ultrasonic inspection; infrared thermography; integrated vehicle health monitoring; condition monitoring

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) represent a rapidly emerging technology, transforming daily life through their autonomous capabilities and communication functions. Their applications range from remote operations such as maintenance and inspection to the delivery of everyday goods—and even critical medical supplies like organs or blood—making UAVs increasingly vital to both society and industry.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive platform for showcasing the latest research and technological innovations in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), with particular emphasis on autonomy, maintenance, and health monitoring. Advances in artificial intelligence, sensor fusion, and communication technologies are accelerating the development of autonomous UAV systems capable of safe, reliable, and seamless operations across diverse environments.

The Special Issue welcomes contributions addressing autonomous UAV operations, including intelligent decision-making, fault detection and diagnostics, predictive and condition-based maintenance, and integrated vehicle health management (IVHM). Topics of interest also include real-time monitoring of structural integrity, novel non-destructive inspection methods, adaptive maintenance approaches, and digital twin-enabled maintenance strategies. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the Special Issue highlights the transformative potential of UAVs in various domains and initiates discussions on emerging challenges.

Dr. Muhammet E. Torbali
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
  • autonomy
  • maintenance
  • technological innovations

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

45 pages, 7679 KB  
Article
Conquering the Urban Firefighting Challenge: A Deep Q-Network Approach for Autonomous UAV Navigation
by Shafiqul Alam Khan, Damian Valles, Marcelo M. Carvalho and Wenquan Dong
Inventions 2026, 11(2), 35; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions11020035 - 2 Apr 2026
Viewed by 791
Abstract
Firefighters must locate victims reliably to carry out rescue operations within burning structures during urban firefighting events. Low visibility, reduced oxygen levels, weakened structural rigidity, and dense smoke make it difficult to locate victims. In addition to these challenges, victims may be unconscious [...] Read more.
Firefighters must locate victims reliably to carry out rescue operations within burning structures during urban firefighting events. Low visibility, reduced oxygen levels, weakened structural rigidity, and dense smoke make it difficult to locate victims. In addition to these challenges, victims may be unconscious and unable to report their locations to firefighters. This research work explores the Double Deep Q-Network (Double DQN), Dueling Deep Q-Network (Dueling DQN), and Dueling Double Deep Q-Network (D3QN) agents for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to navigate around a structure and locate trapped victims within it. The UAV’s position, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and infrared camera data are utilized as inputs for the Deep Q-Networks. The PER is used to store transitions and sample them according to priority for training. Python’s Pygame library is used in this research to create a simulated environment in which infrared camera and LiDAR data are simulated. The performance of the UAV agent is evaluated using cumulative maximum reward, reward distribution histogram, Temporal Difference (TD) error over time, and number of successful episodes. Among the three DQN UAV agents, the Dueling DQN and Double DQN have potential for real-world applications in firefighting. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): Innovations and Applications)
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