UAV-Based Sensing and Autonomous Technologies
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2026 | Viewed by 243
Special Issue Editor
Interests: mobile robots; multi-agent systems; Internet; artificial intelligence; remotely operated vehicles; road safety; road vehicles; traffic engineering computing; Internet of Things; automobiles; autonomous aerial vehicles
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) present the following operational advantages over conventional vehicles: (i) they need no physical road infrastructure thanks to a direct, constant, and high travel speed; (ii) less exposure to traffic congestion; (iii) ability to operate in dangerous and disaster-ridden environments; (iv) ability to be deployed easily and rapidly; (v) ability to cover a large terrain; and (vi) adjustable height to better meet and serve various requirements. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are becoming increasingly automated to fulfill numerous tasks alone or within swarms (e.g., search and rescue (SAR), medical supply delivery, humanitarian aid, environmental monitoring, photography/filming, inspection/maintenance, mapping, and law enforcement), as self-awareness and control systems, benefitting from advancing sensor technologies, actuators, and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, improve. Sensors are the main self-awareness components (i) in perceiving the environment through continuous vehicle environmental interaction via sensor fusion and (ii) establishing various missions beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) through effective decision making depending on the assigned task requirements.
In this Special Issue, we are keen to showcase the most recent sensor technologies that have been or are being developed for UAVs. More explicitly, we would like to analyze how sensors and sensor fusion are contributing to UAV automation, i.e., the role of sensors and sensor fusion in increasing the efficacy of UAV autonomous decision making. Therefore, we would like to invite the academic and industrial research community to contribute original research and review articles to this Special Issue.
Dr. Kaya Kuru
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
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. Sensors 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.
Keywords
- unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
- unmanned aerial systems (UASs)
- autonomous vehicles
- sensor fusion
- autonomous decision making
- vehicle automation
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
