Symmetry and Asymmetry in Unmanned Systems Control and Optimization
A special issue of Symmetry (ISSN 2073-8994). This special issue belongs to the section "A: Computer Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2027 | Viewed by 15
Editors
Interests: control and optimization; source seeking; nonlinear system; multi-agent systems; formation control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: neural networks; stochastic system; intelligent system; robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent years, unmanned systems—including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), unmanned surface vehicles (USVs), autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and space exploration robots—have undergone rapid development and are increasingly deployed in complex and dynamic environments. The control and optimization of these systems face significant challenges arising from system nonlinearities, environmental uncertainties, heterogeneous task requirements and resource constraints. Within this context, the concepts of symmetry and asymmetry have emerged as powerful analytical and design principles that can fundamentally shape the performance, efficiency and robustness of unmanned systems.
Symmetry in unmanned systems often manifests in system dynamics, actuator configurations, communication topologies and control architectures. Leveraging symmetry can lead to elegant model reduction, simplified controller design, improved generalization and computationally efficient optimization. For example, the inherent symmetry in quadrotor dynamics can be exploited to design stable and efficient flight controllers, while permutation symmetry in multi-agent systems enables scalable coordination strategies.
Conversely, asymmetry arises naturally in real-world unmanned systems due to uneven payload distributions, actuator failures, sensor limitations, asymmetric input/output constraints, heterogeneous agent capabilities and uncertain or adversarial environments. Addressing these asymmetries requires adaptive, robust and asymmetric optimization and control strategies that can maintain system stability, safety and mission effectiveness under non-ideal conditions.
This Special Issue aims to bring together cutting-edge research that explores the role of symmetry and asymmetry in the control and optimization of unmanned systems. We invite contributions that investigate novel theoretical frameworks, algorithmic innovations and practical applications that leverage symmetric structures or tackle asymmetric challenges in unmanned systems. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Symmetry-aware control design for UAVs, UGVs, AUVs and space robots
- Asymmetric control under time-varying input/output constraints
- Symmetry and asymmetry in multi-agent system coordination and formation control
- Symmetry-exploiting optimization algorithms for unmanned system planning
- Asymmetric optimization under uncertainty and dynamic environments
- Neural network and deep learning methods with symmetry/equivariance for unmanned systems
- Symmetry-based model reduction and decomposition for complex unmanned systems
- Fault-tolerant control exploiting system symmetries
- Asymmetric communication topologies and distributed control
- Reinforcement learning with symmetry inductive biases for unmanned system control
- Trajectory planning and path optimization with symmetric/asymmetric constraints
- Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) leveraging symmetry properties
- Bio-inspired unmanned systems with asymmetric morphologies and control
- Experimental validation and real-world applications of symmetry/asymmetry-based methods
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Zhenghong Jin
Dr. Yufeng Tian
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- unmanned systems
- symmetry and asymmetry
- control and optimization
- multi-agent coordination
- fault tolerance and robustness
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