Autonomous Sensing and Perception for UAV Systems
A Special Issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220) belonging to the section "Sensors and Robotics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2027 | Viewed by 31
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 vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionised a wide range of fields, such as agriculture, logistics, surveillance and disaster response. Conventional UAV technologies depend largely on human-in-the-loop (HITL) systems, which hinder their scalability and efficiency. Intelligent UAVs are characterised by the integration of perception and sensing modules that facilitate situational awareness at any time. Autonomous perception is crucial to the development of smart UAVs that can operate in complex and challenging environments. Perceptions pertain to the interpretation of useful data through sensory data using sensor fusion. Sensing relates to the acquisition of data from the environment using advanced sensing equipment such as vision-based sensors, LiDAR/radar/ultrasonic sensors. Autonomous sensing and perception make UAVs able to sense their environments, make decisions and perform their functions independently using automation-in-the-loop (AITL) agents.
With improvements being made continuously in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and sensor technologies, more developments have been witnessed in UAV capabilities. With the rising application of UAVs in highly dynamic and challenging environments, there is an increasing demand for more sophisticated technologies that support UAVs in their sensing and perception processes in an automated manner. This topic aims at analysing the main concepts related to autonomous sensing and perception in UAVs, with particular emphasis on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and swarm intelligence using real-time communication with the integration of advanced communication technologies such as 5G/6G.
Topics of interest for publication include, but are not limited to, the following:
-Sensor technologies suited to UAVs
-Sensor fusion approaches for UAVs in improving perception
-Swarm intelligence in combining the sensing capabilities of multiple UAVs, leading to the perception of a larger environment
-Advanced communication technologies in UAVs, leading to improved swarm intelligence
-Autonomous decision-making of UAVs integrated with advanced language models (e.g. agentic LMs, ReAct)
-Autonomous applications of UAVs
-Advanced communication technologies in UAVs
Dr. Kaya Kuru
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- automation-in-the-loop UAVs
- autonomous UAVs
- sensing in UAVs
- autonomous perception in UAVs
- swarm intelligence in UAVs
- intelligent UAVs
- advanced sensing with UAVs
- situational awareness in UAVs
- communication technologies in UAVs
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