Design and Flight Control of Low-Speed Near-Space Unmanned Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Near-space is a new type of strategic space, offering significant advantages for diverse applications such as surveillance, communication, and scientific research. As an ideal platform for exploring and exploiting this space, technologies like stratospheric airships, and high-altitude solar drones are rapidly advancing. With the maturation of high-altitude platform technology, the demand for practicality is increasing, and related industries are gradually emerging with huge market space. High-altitude platforms can be widely used in communication coverage, remote sensing applications, environmental monitoring, aviation support and other fields. A crucial research challenge lies in designing unmanned flying platforms that can maintain accurate and stable flight within the harsh and unpredictable near-space environment. While solar panels, advanced battery systems and onboard intelligent energy management ensure sustainable operation of HAPS, balancing the energy demands of flight and communications remains a significant challenge.

This Special Issue aims to publish cutting-edge research results on the design and flight control of near-space low-speed aircraft, a rapidly evolving and highly significant area within the broader field of drone technology. It will contribute to the development of innovative UAV technologies and their successful application within the emerging near-space domain.

We welcome submissions that provide the community with the latest progress on near-space low-speed aircraft, including but not limited to the following:

Review of research progress of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

Overall design technology of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

High-performance materials and structural design of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

Energy system design and energy management of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

Flight planning and flight control of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

Collaborative control of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft clusters;

Prognostics and health management of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

Thermal management of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft;

Intelligent application of near-space low-speed unmanned aircraft.

Prof. Dr. Ming Zhu
Dr. Xixiang Yang
Dr. Tian Chen
Guest Editors

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