Advances in Intelligent Control and Navigation of Unmanned Marine Vehicles

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned marine vehicles, including unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), have become essential platforms for a wide range of ocean applications, including environmental monitoring, marine resource exploration, maritime surveillance, offshore engineering, and search-and-rescue operations. With the rapid advancement of intelligent sensing, autonomous navigation technologies, and marine robotics, unmanned marine systems are playing an increasingly important role in modern ocean operations and maritime industries.

However, unmanned marine vehicles typically operate in highly dynamic and uncertain ocean environments characterized by complex disturbances such as waves, winds, ocean currents, and hydrodynamic uncertainties. These environmental effects, together with system nonlinearities, communication constraints, and potential cyber–physical risks, pose significant challenges to the stability, reliability, and navigation accuracy of autonomous marine systems. As a result, the development of advanced intelligent control and navigation strategies has become a critical research topic in the fields of marine engineering, robotics, and control systems.

This Special Issue aims to present and disseminate the latest advances in the intelligent control and navigation of unmanned marine vehicles. We welcome contributions addressing both theoretical developments and practical applications that enhance the autonomy, reliability, and environmental adaptability of marine robotic systems. In particular, this Special Issue seeks high-quality research on advanced control methodologies, autonomous navigation technologies, and cooperative control strategies for marine vehicles operating in complex ocean environments.

Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Intelligent control of unmanned marine vehicles;
• Autonomous navigation and path planning;
• Disturbance modeling and rejection in marine environments;
• Cooperative control of multi-agent marine systems;
• Learning-based control and reinforcement learning;
• Event-triggered and resource-aware control;
• Cyber–physical security and resilient control;
• Marine robotics and autonomous ocean systems;
• Digital twin technologies for maritime systems;
• Experimental validation and real-world applications.

Prof. Dr. Xin Hu
Guest Editor

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.