Drones, Volume 8, Issue 4

In the evolving landscape of autonomous systems, the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) has emerged as a promising solution for improving the localization accuracy and operational efficiency for diverse...

The tight formation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provides numerous advantages in practical applications, increasing not only their range but also their efficiency during missions. However, the wingman aerodynamics are affected by the tail vorti...

Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellite Signal-of-Opportunity (SOP) positioning technology has gradually matured to meet the accuracy requirements for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) positioning in daily scenarios. Advancements in miniaturization technology fo...

This paper introduces a quadrotor trajectory tracking controller comprising a steady-state optimal position controller with a normed input saturation and modular integrative action coupled with a backstepping attitude controller. First, the translati...

This work is inscribed into a more comprehensive project related to the architectural requalification and restoration of Frinco Castle, one of the most significant fortified medieval structures in the Monferrato area (province of Asti, Italy), that e...

A UAV infrared target detection model ITD-YOLOv8 based on YOLOv8 is proposed to address the issues of model missed and false detections caused by complex ground background and uneven target scale in UAV aerial infrared image target detection, as well...

Aerial images record the dynamic Earth terrain, reflecting changes in land cover patterns caused by natural processes and human activities. Nonetheless, prevailing aerial image classification methodologies predominantly function within a closed-set f...

A technology to search for victims in disaster areas by localizing human-related sound sources, such as voices and emergency whistles, using a drone-embedded microphone array was researched. One of the challenges is the development of sound source lo...

Unmanned helicopters are always subject to various external disturbances and constraints when performing tasks. In this paper, an extended state observer-based command-filtered safe tracking control scheme is investigated for an unmanned helicopter u...

A UAV-assisted space–air–ground integrated network (SAGIN) can provide communication services for remote areas and disaster-stricken regions. However, the increasing types and numbers of ground terminals (GTs) have led to the explosive gr...

In this paper, we propose a three-layer distributed simulation network architecture, which consists of a distributed virtual simulation network, a perception and control subnetwork, and a cooperative communication service network. The simulation arch...

Multi-unmanned systems have demonstrated significant applications across various fields under complex or extreme operating environments. In order to make such systems highly efficient and reliable, cooperative decision-making methods have been utiliz...

The application of computer vision in conjunction with GPS is essential for autonomous wind turbine inspection, particularly when the drone navigates through a wind farm to detect the turbine of interest. Although drones for such inspections use GPS,...

This paper presents a systematic literature review investigating the integration of lightweight blockchain and fog computing technologies to enhance the security and operational efficiency of drones. With a focus on critical applications such as mili...

Millimeter wave (mmWave) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-aided networks have enormous application potential due to their large bandwidth and ultra-high speed, being regarded as an effective technology for improving the reliability of military and civil...

Artemisia frigida, as an important indicator species of grassland degradation, holds significant guidance significance for understanding grassland degradation status and conducting grassland restoration. Therefore, conducting rapid surveys and monito...

The wide range and high intensity of landslides in the mining area pose a great threat to the safety of human life and property. It is particularly important to identify and monitor them. However, due to the serious surface damage, small landslide sc...

The demand for air-to-ground communication has surged in recent years, underscoring the significance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in enhancing mobile communication, particularly in emergency scenarios due to their deployment efficiency and flex...

The operational regime of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is distinguished by the dominance of laminar flow and the flow field is characterized by the appearance of Laminar Separation Bubbles (LSBs). Ice accretion on the leading side of the airfoil l...

Urban air mobility (UAM) is a transformative mode of air transportation system technology that is targeted to carry passengers and goods in and around urban areas using electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. UAM operations are inten...

At present, all the flight controllers of agricultural UAVs cannot accurately and quickly control the influencing factors of the UAV coupled rotor airflow backward tilt angle during the application process. To solve the above problem, a Rotor Airflow...

Due to the unique distance and angles involved in satellite remote sensing, ships appear with a small pixel area in images, leading to insufficient feature representation. This results in suboptimal performance in ship detection, including potential...

With the continuous advancement of drone technology, drones are demonstrating a trend toward autonomy and clustering. The detection of airborne objects from the perspective of drones is critical for addressing threats posed by aerial targets and ensu...

With the growing prominence of UAV-based low-altitude remote sensing in agriculture, the acquisition and processing of high-quality UAV remote sensing images is paramount. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of various parameter se...

Given the escalating frequency and severity of global forest fires, it is imperative to develop advanced detection and segmentation technologies to mitigate their impact. To address the challenges of these technologies, the development of deep learni...

In the expeditiously evolving discipline of autonomous aerial robotics, the efficiency and precision of drone control deliveries have become predominant. Different control strategies for UAV systems have been thoroughly investigated, yet PID controll...

Maize is a globally important cereal and fodder crop. Accurate monitoring of maize planting densities is vital for informed decision-making by agricultural managers. Compared to traditional manual methods for collecting crop trait parameters, approac...

Conservation efforts in cliff habitats pose unique challenges due to their inaccessibility, limiting the study and protection of rare endemic species. This project introduces a novel approach utilizing aerial manipulation through a suspended manipula...

Earthquakes pose significant risks to national stability, endangering lives and causing substantial economic damage. This study tackles the urgent need for efficient post-earthquake relief in search and rescue (SAR) scenarios by proposing a multi-UAV...

Fast and accurate pose estimation is essential for the local motion control of robots such as drones. At present, camera-based motion capture (Mocap) systems are mostly used by robots. However, this kind of Mocap system is easily affected by light no...

This paper proposes an online predictive control method for fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with a pan-tilt camera in target tracking. It aims to achieve long-term tracking while concurrently maintaining the target near the image center. P...

Assessing nesting metrics in large waterbird breeding rookeries is challenging due to their size and accessibility. Drones offer a promising solution, but their comparability with ground surveys remains debated. In our study, we directly compared gro...

This paper addresses the guidance of various flight vehicles under multiple constraints in three-dimensional space. A cooperative guidance strategy that satisfies both time and angle constraints is designed to reach a moving target. The strategy is o...

The flapping-wing ornithopter is an aircraft that imitates the flight of birds in nature. It has significant potential and value in various fields such as surveying, search and rescue, military reconnaissance, and unmanned warfare, due to its biomime...

To improve the search efficiency of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm in disaster areas, the target distribution probability graph in the prior information is introduced, and a drone cluster search trajectory planning method based on probabilit...

In the attitude control of quadrotor drones, it is necessary to cope with matched and unmatched disturbances caused by nonlinear couplings, model uncertainties, and external disturbances, as well as to consider the effects caused by actuator dynamics...

The ongoing expansion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution has led to a diversification of drone applications. Among them, this paper focuses on the critical technology required for load management using drones. Generally, when using autonomous drones...

This study presents a performance analysis for an Internet-of-Things wildlife radio-tracking mission using drones, satellites and stratospheric platforms for data relay with Spread Spectrum Modulation devices. The performance analysis is presented wi...

In UAV autonomous exploration, large frontier clusters are commonly associated with high information gain and are visited first. In contrast, small and isolated frontier clusters with fewer frontiers are associated with smaller information gain and a...

A proposed strategy for managing airspace and preventing illegal drones from compromising security involves the use of autonomous drones equipped with three key functionalities. Firstly, the implementation of YOLO-v5 technology allows for the identif...

This paper describes a dragonfly-inspired Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicle (FW-MAV), named HiFly-Dragon. Dragonflies exhibit exceptional flight performance in nature, surpassing most of the other insects, and benefit from their abilities to independen...

The current challenge in drone swarm technology is three-dimensional path planning and adaptive formation changes. The traditional A* algorithm has limitations, such as low efficiency, difficulty in handling obstacles, and numerous turning points, wh...

Robot autonomous exploration is a challenging and valuable research field that has attracted widespread research interest in recent years. However, existing methods often encounter problems such as incomplete exploration, repeated exploration paths,...

Today, ground control points (GCPs) represent indispensable tools for products’ georeferencing in all the techniques concerning remote sensing (RS), particularly in monitoring activities from unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platforms. This work...

The Internet of Things (IoT) serves as a crucial element in interconnecting diverse devices within the realm of smart technology. However, the energy consumption of IoT technology has become a notable challenge and an area of interest for researchers...

The UAV industry has witnessed an unprecedented boom in recent years. Among various kinds of UAV platforms, the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft with fixed-wing configurations has received more and more attention due to its flexibility a...

Different kinds of swarm intelligence algorithm obtain superior performances in solving complex optimization problems and have been widely used in path planning of drones. Due to their own characteristics, the optimization results may vary greatly in...

Forests, as the main body of the terrestrial ecosystem, have long been focal points for accurate structural parameter extraction. Among these parameters, tree height is a fundamental measurement factor that plays an important role in monitoring fores...

In this study, the thrust performance of a staggered rotor system in-ground effect (IGE) and out-of-ground effect (OGE) while considering the interaction on wake characteristics were investigated experimentally. A thorough comprehension of their perf...

This paper addresses the challenge of managing service function chaining (SFC) in an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) IoT, a dynamic network that integrates UAVs and IoT devices for various scenarios. To enhance the service quality and user experience o...