New Trends in Robust and Adaptive Control for Autonomous Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Robust and adaptive control is critical to ensuring the performance and safety of autonomous systems, such as UAVs and other unmanned vehicles, especially when operating in dynamic and challenging environments. These control techniques enable autonomous systems not only to adapt to operational changes, but also to overcome external disturbances while compensating for internal system uncertainties. As autonomous vehicles become increasingly crucial in applications such as precision agriculture, logistics, and industrial automation, the development of advanced control methodologies that enhance both their autonomy and reliability is essential.

This Special Issue aims to present recent advances in the application of robust and adaptive control techniques to autonomous systems, encompassing both theoretical innovations and practical implementations. The Drones journal provides a unique platform for exploring these emerging technologies, particularly focusing on UAVs and their ability to address the technical challenges associated with high-precision autonomous operation.

We invite authors to submit original research articles and reviews. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Robust control methods for autonomous systems, focusing on performance under dynamic and uncertain conditions.
• Adaptive control techniques suited to dynamic environments with varying system parameters and external disturbances.
• The modeling of autonomous systems and the affecting disturbances, including the nonlinearities and internal uncertainties in system dynamics.
• Estimation and compensation strategies for handling uncertainties, both parametric and external, in control design.
• The application of robust and adaptive control in fields such as precision agriculture, logistics, and industrial automation.
• Innovations in sensors and actuators, enhancing the adaptability, robustness, and precision of autonomous vehicles.
• The integration of control algorithms within multi-agent systems and UAV networks, including coordinated control strategies under disturbances.

Prof. Dr. Cuauhtemoc Acosta Lua
Dr. Stefano Di Gennaro
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.

• autonomous systems modeling under disturbances
• robust control
• adaptative control
• external disturbances
• internal uncertainties
• multi-agent coordination under disturbances