Electric-Powered and Hybrid-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology and Applications of Low Altitude Aviation

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovative Urban Mobility".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2025) | Viewed by 1570

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Unmanned System, Beihang University, Beijing, China
Interests: UAV; aerospace engineering; aerodynamics; low altitude aviation; distributed power design

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Guest Editor
College of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China,School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Interests: UAV system overall, UAV overall layout, UAV aerodynamic layout and design, UAV flight mechanics and control, UAV airworthiness and verification, intelligent UAV comprehensive design

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Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: renewable energy integration; cyber-physical power system; artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Informatics and Telematics, Harokopio University of Athens, 17778 Athens, Greece
Interests: aerospace Engineering; unmanned aerial vehicles; exterior ballistics; intelligent transportation systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Electric-Powered unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) play an important role in promoting low altitude aviation and economy development. We are happy to announce a Special Issue entitled "Electric-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology Technology and Applications of Low Altitude Aviation". This Special Issue will complete a group of international papers published in the field of Electric-Powered UAV technology and low altitude aviation, with its rapid growth in popularity anticipated.Currently, new electric-powered UAV technology technology and low Altitude aviation systems are in an era of transformation. Technology development involves the development of modeling, simulation, aerodynamic and flight dynamic analysis of electric UAV. New technology hotspots are developing rapidly, including distributed electric power, eVOTL and low altitude solar-powered UAV. Some application topics deserve more attention, such as artificial intelligence technology,urban air mobility and delivery,Low altitude economy analysis by electric-powered aircraft, et al.This Special Issue aims to collect new developments and emerging technologies in the field of Electric-Powered UAV technology and applications with reviews, regular research papers, communications, and short notes. We encourage submissions which provide the community with the most recent advancements in all aspects of Electric-Powered UAV, including but not limited to:

  1. Modeling and simulation of new aircraft configurations;
  2. Aerodynamic and flight dynamic analysis of new aircraft;
  3. Development and application of Electric-Powered UAV;
  4. Distributed electric power design and analysis for UAV;
  5. Design and dynamic analysis of eVOTL;
  6. Design and performance analysis of multi-rotor UAV
  7. Design and dynamic analysis of low altitude solar-powered UAV;
  8. Design and performance analysis of micro and small logistics UAV
  9. Artificial intelligence technology of electric-powered UAV system;
  10. Urban air mobility and delivery by electric-powered aircraft;
  11. Green Aviation Technology;
  12. Low altitude aviation and economy analysis

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Wenbiao Gan
Dr. Zhou Zhou
Dr. Saddam Aziz
Dr. Ilias Panagiotopoulos
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.

Keywords

  • electric-powered aircraft
  • distributed power
  • UAV
  • optimization design
  • aerodynamics
  • artificial intelligence
  • green aviation
  • urban air mobility and delivery
  • low altitude economy

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 6441 KiB  
Article
Aerodynamic Investigation for a Propeller-Induced Lift-Enhancing Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) Configuration
by Hongbo Wang, Guangjia Li, Jie Li and Junjie Zhuang
Drones 2025, 9(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9010020 - 29 Dec 2024
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Abstract
Difficulty in thrust-matching between the cruise and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) phases is one of the prominent issues faced by conventional VTOL fixed-wing drones. To address this issue, a propeller-induced lift-enhancing (PILE) biplane wing VTOL configuration is proposed with the goal of [...] Read more.
Difficulty in thrust-matching between the cruise and vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) phases is one of the prominent issues faced by conventional VTOL fixed-wing drones. To address this issue, a propeller-induced lift-enhancing (PILE) biplane wing VTOL configuration is proposed with the goal of lift enhancement on the wing during the no-forward-speed VTOL phase. Numerical simulation methods are used to study and analyze the aerodynamic characteristics of this configuration in the cruise and VTOL phases. The results show that the favorable inducing effect of the propeller makes the PILE configuration have a good effect of increasing lift and reducing drag compared with a single wing of the same area during the cruise phase, improving the lift-to-drag ratio by 7.27%. During the VTOL phase, the optimal tilt angle of the propeller for the PALE configuration is 70°, matched with an installation angle of 5° for the aided wing. This parameter combination balances the total drag while also achieving a lift-to-thrust ratio of 1.12. As a result, the required thrust of the propeller is reduced under the same take-off weight, which helps to alleviate the thrust-matching problem and enables VTOL with a smaller power cost. Full article
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Review

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19 pages, 5874 KiB  
Review
Key Technology for Human-System Integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Urban Air Transportation
by Chuanyan Feng, Jinwei Hou, Shuang Liu, Xiaoru Wanyan, Menglong Ding, Huadong Li, De Yan and Dawei Bie
Drones 2025, 9(1), 18; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9010018 - 27 Dec 2024
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Abstract
Effective integration of human factors and systems engineering has become a technical challenge that constrains the full realization of human performance in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for urban air transportation. To address this challenge, breakthroughs are needed in key technologies related to human-system [...] Read more.
Effective integration of human factors and systems engineering has become a technical challenge that constrains the full realization of human performance in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for urban air transportation. To address this challenge, breakthroughs are needed in key technologies related to human-system integration (HSI) of UAS. Based on literature review and industry practices, unique HF challenges of UAS are identified, and two research issues, HSI analysis throughout UAS development lifecycle and HSI practice under UAS typical lifecycle stages, are summarized. To address these issues, a model-based human-system integration (MBHSI) design framework is proposed for the UAS development lifecycle, along with an HSI practice framework for UAS under typical human readiness levels. The HSI design and practice framework can provide references for HF design of UAS in urban air transportation. Full article
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