Civil and Public Domain Applications of Unmanned Aviation 2025

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned systems have witnessed unprecedented levels of growth during the past two decades. Although military applications have dominated the field for years, there has been a major shift to civil and public domain applications in which aerial platforms are used across a wide spectrum of diverse applications in urban and rural areas. This Special Issue focuses on civil and public domain applications and on the societal impact of unmanned aviation and its effect on everyday quality of life. Although the technical challenges cover a wide spectrum of topics, of particular importance are the following:

• Aerial Manipulation;
• Morphological Designs of Aerial Robots;
• Bio-inspired Aerial Robots;
• UAV Design for Resilience;
• Multi-mode Unmanned Platforms;
• Swarms and Multi-UAV systems;
• Learning-based Perception, Navigation and Control;
• Efficient, Online Autonomy;
• Applications of Aerial Robots;
• Human Factors and Ethical AI for Aerial Robots;
• Regulations and Policies for Autonomous Operations;
• Integration into the National Airspace.

Submitted papers will include, but will be not be limited to, extended versions of accepted conference papers in ICUAS 2025, which will be held on 14–17 May 2025 in Charlotte, NC, USA. The maximum percentage of overlap will be 30%. Authors must reference the corresponding conference papers. The extended version of the accepted conference papers in ICUAS 2025 will enjoy a 20% discount on the Article Processing Charge.

Prof. Dr. Kimon P. Valavanis
Dr. Nikolaos Vitzilaios
Topic Editors