Advances in UAV Guidance, Navigation, and Control Through Acoustic Technologies

Dear Colleagues,

As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) continue to proliferate across civilian, commercial, and defense applications, their acoustic characteristics are becoming a critical area of research. UAVs generate distinct noise profiles that not only affect public perception and regulatory acceptance but also influence operational effectiveness in both populated and remote environments. This Special Issue focuses on the intersection of acoustics and UAV technologies, showcasing research that spans from fundamental studies of noise mechanisms to applied innovations in sound-based sensing and control.

Articles in this issue address the challenges posed by UAV noise, including its generation, propagation through complex environments, and potential ecological and societal impacts. They also explore the opportunities that acoustics offers, such as passive sensing for navigation, detection, and cooperative control of UAVs in GPS-denied or cluttered spaces. By advancing experimental, theoretical, and computational methods, this Special Issue aims to deepen understanding and stimulate new approaches to making UAV systems more effective and less intrusive.

We welcome contributions across a wide range of topics, including but not limited to

• UAV guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) strategies involving acoustics for near- or real-time capabilities and applications;
• Noise generation and mitigation to support community acceptance;
• Passive acoustic sensing for UAV localization, navigation, and tracking;
• State estimation using acoustic signals fused with inertial and/or visual data;
• Beamforming and source separation for situational awareness and detection;
• Acoustic propagation modeling for robust GNC in urban, cluttered, or indoor environments;
• Sound-based coordination and communication for multi-agent UAV systems;
• UAV-based acoustic platforms for environmental monitoring and cooperative navigation;
• Machine learning and signal processing techniques for real-time GNC using acoustic data.

Dr. Evan Kawamura
Dr. Dilmurat M. Azimov
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• UAV acoustics
• drone noise
• acoustic sensing
• sound propagation
• noise mitigation
• acoustic navigation passive localization
• beamforming
• environmental noise impact
• multimodal state estimation