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New Methods and Applications for UAVs
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New Methods and Applications for UAVs

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Vehicular Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2024 | Viewed by 7830

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Andrzej Łukaszewicz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland
Interests: UAV design; CAD; CAx; lattice structures; topology optimization; fibre composites; UGV and UAV collaboration; new applications for UAVs; AM techniques; 3D printing drones parts
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Carlos Tavares Calafate

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Computer Engineering Department (DISCA), Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), 46022 Valencia, Spain
Interests: UAV networking and communications solutions; drone swarms; UAS traffic management (UTM); IoT; Traffic management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Wojciech Giernacki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, Faculty of Control, Robotics and Electrical Engineering, Poznan University of Technology, 60-965 Poznan, Poland
Interests: UAV control and simulation; machine learning for UAV autonomous control; motion and mission planning; autonomy reliability and safety of UAVs; multi-robot systems; swarm robotics; relative UAV localization; object tracking; perception and multi-sensor fusion; optimization techniques for UAVs
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) represent a hot topic today as they have shown their suitability for handling the different challenges related to various areas, including search and rescue missions, monitoring of disaster areas, aiding in emergency situations, improvements to precision agriculture, environmental monitoring, delivery of goods, etc.

Despite their success, there are still many challenges to face in order to achieve efficient solutions in areas such as sensing, flight control, swarm coordination, collision avoidance, environmental awareness, robotic manipulation, etc.

This Special Issue addresses novel contributions to the state of the art in the UAV area by focusing on contributions that address the aforementioned challenges. In particular, topics of interest include but are not limited to the following ones:

- Novel applications for UAVs;

- UAV/UGV/UMV collaboration;

- Unconventional UAVs’ solutions, prototypes, etc.;

- Unconventional UAV propulsion;

- New UAVs’ airframe design;

- Advanced sensing solutions for UAVs;

- UAV networking and communications solutions;

- Machine learning approaches for autonomous drones and drone swarms;

- UAS traffic management (UTM) in the context of U-Space;

- Experimental results (prototypes, field tests, etc.);

- UAV/UGV/UMV collaboration;

- CAx systems in UAV design;

- Efficiency of UAV platforms;

- FEA in UAV design;

- CFD analysis of UAV;

- New materials in UAV;

- Advanced fiber composites in UAV;

- Aerial swarm robotics.

Dr. Andrzej Łukaszewicz
Prof. Dr. Carlos Tavares Calafate
Prof. Dr. Wojciech Giernacki
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. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

23 pages, 8365 KiB  
Article
Resilient Multi-Sensor UAV Navigation with a Hybrid Federated Fusion Architecture
by Sorin Andrei Negru, Patrick Geragersian, Ivan Petrunin and Weisi Guo
Sensors 2024, 24(3), 981; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24030981 - 02 Feb 2024
Viewed by 831
Abstract
Future UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operations in urban environments demand a PNT (position, navigation, and timing) solution that is both robust and resilient. While a GNSS (global navigation satellite system) can provide an accurate position under open-sky assumptions, the complexity of urban operations [...] Read more.
Future UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) operations in urban environments demand a PNT (position, navigation, and timing) solution that is both robust and resilient. While a GNSS (global navigation satellite system) can provide an accurate position under open-sky assumptions, the complexity of urban operations leads to NLOS (non-line-of-sight) and multipath effects, which in turn impact the accuracy of the PNT data. A key research question within the research community pertains to determining the appropriate hybrid fusion architecture that can ensure the resilience and continuity of UAV operations in urban environments, minimizing significant degradations of PNT data. In this context, we present a novel federated fusion architecture that integrates data from the GNSS, the IMU (inertial measurement unit), a monocular camera, and a barometer to cope with the GNSS multipath and positioning performance degradation. Within the federated fusion architecture, local filters are implemented using EKFs (extended Kalman filters), while a master filter is used in the form of a GRU (gated recurrent unit) block. Data collection is performed by setting up a virtual environment in AirSim for the visual odometry aid and barometer data, while Spirent GSS7000 hardware is used to collect the GNSS and IMU data. The hybrid fusion architecture is compared to a classic federated architecture (formed only by EKFs) and tested under different light and weather conditions to assess its resilience, including multipath and GNSS outages. The proposed solution demonstrates improved resilience and robustness in a range of degraded conditions while maintaining a good level of positioning performance with a 95th percentile error of 0.54 m for the square scenario and 1.72 m for the survey scenario. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Applications for UAVs)
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14 pages, 5878 KiB  
Article
Computational Study of a Motion Sensor to Simultaneously Measure Two Physical Quantities in All Three Directions for a UAV
by Kamran Siddique and Yoshifumi Ogami
Sensors 2023, 23(11), 5265; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23115265 - 01 Jun 2023
Viewed by 869
Abstract
Cross-axis sensitivity is generally undesirable, and lower values are required for the accurate performance of a thermal accelerometer. In this study, errors in devices are utilized to simultaneously measure two physical quantities of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the X-, Y-, and [...] Read more.
Cross-axis sensitivity is generally undesirable, and lower values are required for the accurate performance of a thermal accelerometer. In this study, errors in devices are utilized to simultaneously measure two physical quantities of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the X-, Y-, and Z-directions, i.e., where three accelerations and three rotations can also be simultaneously measured using a single motion sensor. The 3D structures of thermal accelerometers were designed and simulated in a FEM simulator using commercially available FLUENT 18.2 software Obtained temperature responses were correlated with input physical quantities, and a graphical relationship was created between peak temperature values and input accelerations and rotations. Using this graphical representation, any values of acceleration from 1g to 4g and rotational speed from 200 to 1000°/s can be simultaneously measured in all three directions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Applications for UAVs)
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19 pages, 758 KiB  
Article
UAV Trajectory Optimization in a Post-Disaster Area Using Dual Energy-Aware Bandits
by Amr Amrallah, Ehab Mahmoud Mohamed, Gia Khanh Tran and Kei Sakaguchi
Sensors 2023, 23(3), 1402; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23031402 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1632
Abstract
Over the past few years, with the rapid increase in the number of natural disasters, the need to provide smart emergency wireless communication services has become crucial. Unmanned aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have gained much attention as promising candidates due to their unprecedented capabilities [...] Read more.
Over the past few years, with the rapid increase in the number of natural disasters, the need to provide smart emergency wireless communication services has become crucial. Unmanned aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have gained much attention as promising candidates due to their unprecedented capabilities and broad flexibility. In this paper, we investigate a UAV-based emergency wireless communication network for a post-disaster area. Our optimization problem aims to optimize the UAV’s flight trajectory to maximize the number of visited ground users during the flight period. Then, a dual cost-aware multi-armed bandit algorithm is adopted to tackle this problem under the limited available energy for both the UAV and ground users. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm could solve the optimization problem and maximize the achievable throughput under these energy constraints. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Applications for UAVs)
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Review

Jump to: Research

13 pages, 1096 KiB  
Review
Review on Type of Sensors and Detection Method of Anti-Collision System of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
by Navaneetha Krishna Chandran, Mohammed Thariq Hameed Sultan, Andrzej Łukaszewicz, Farah Syazwani Shahar, Andriy Holovatyy and Wojciech Giernacki
Sensors 2023, 23(15), 6810; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23156810 - 30 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2876
Abstract
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) usage is increasing drastically worldwide as UAVs are used in various industries for many applications, such as inspection, logistics, agriculture, and many more. This is because performing a task using UAV makes the job more efficient and reduces the [...] Read more.
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) usage is increasing drastically worldwide as UAVs are used in various industries for many applications, such as inspection, logistics, agriculture, and many more. This is because performing a task using UAV makes the job more efficient and reduces the workload needed. However, for a UAV to be operated manually or autonomously, the UAV must be equipped with proper safety features. An anti-collision system is one of the most crucial and fundamental safety features that UAVs must be equipped with. The anti-collision system allows the UAV to maintain a safe distance from any obstacles. The anti-collision technologies are of crucial relevance to assure the survival and safety of UAVs. Anti-collision of UAVs can be varied in the aspect of sensor usage and the system’s working principle. This article provides a comprehensive overview of anti-collision technologies for UAVs. It also presents drone safety laws and regulations that prevent a collision at the policy level. The process of anti-collision technologies is studied from three aspects: Obstacle detection, collision prediction, and collision avoidance. A detailed overview and comparison of the methods of each element and an analysis of their advantages and disadvantages have been provided. In addition, the future trends of UAV anti-collision technologies from the viewpoint of fast obstacle detection and wireless networking are presented. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Methods and Applications for UAVs)
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

Title: REVIEW ON TYPE OF SENSORS AND DETECTION METHOD OF ANTI-COLLISION SYSTEM OF UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE
Authors: Navaneetha Krishna Chandran1, Mohammed Thariq Hameed Sultan1,2,3*, Andrzej Łukaszewicz4*, Farah Syazwani Shahar2
Affiliation: Affiliation: 1 Laboratory of Biocomposite Technology, Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), University Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Department of Aerospace Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400, UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Aerospace Malaysia Innovation Centre (944751-A), Prime Minister’s Department, MIGHT Partnership Hub, Jalan Impact, 63000, Cyberjaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia 4 Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland; a.lukaszewicz@pb.edu.pl * corresponding authors: thariq@upm.edu.my, a.lukaszewicz@pb.edu.pl
Abstract: Abstract (optional): Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) usage is increasing drastically worldwide as UAVs are used in various industries for many applications, such as inspection, logistics, agriculture, and many more. This is because performing a task using UAV makes the job more efficient and reduces the workload needed. However, for a UAV to be operated manually or autonomously, the UAV must be equipped with proper safety features. An anti-collision system is one of the most crucial and fundamental safety features that UAVs must be equipped with. The anti-collision system allows the UAV to maintain a safe distance from any obstacles. The anti-collision technologies are of crucial relevance to assure the survival and safety of UAVs. Anti-collision of UAVs can be varied in the aspect of the use of sensors and the system’s working principle. This article provides a comprehensive overview of anti-collision technologies for UAVs. It also presents drone safety laws and regulations that prevent a collision at the policy level. The process of anti-collision technologies is studied from three aspects: Obstacle detection, collision prediction, and collision avoidance. A detailed overview and comparison of the methods of each element and an analysis of their advantages and disadvantages have been provided. In addition, the future trends of UAV anti-collision technologies from the viewpoint of fast obstacle detection and wireless networking are presented. Keywords: anti-collision methods; detection system; sensors; UAV

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