UAV Positioning: From Ground to Sky

A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2024) | Viewed by 887

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Group of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Oviedo, 33203 Gijón, Spain
Interests: inverse scattering; microwave imaging; ground penetrating radar; antenna measurement; unmanned aerial vehicles; positioning and geo-referring systems

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Group of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Oviedo, 33203 Gijón, Spain
Interests: millimeterwave imaging; microwave imaging; freehand systems, ground penetrating radar; antenna measurement; unmanned aerial vehicles; positioning and geo-referring systems; RFID
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become an invaluable tool for numerous remote sensing applications. Many of these applications require knowledge of the UAV position with high accuracy (e.g., airborne radar systems). Furthermore, the improvements in positioning accuracy can foster novel applications that could benefit from such enhanced positioning. The decrease in cost and convergence time of real-time kinematic (RTK) receivers has contributed to their adoption for a wide range of applications. However, as they are based on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), they can suffer from GNSS jamming and cannot work directly indoors. Therefore, other sensors, such as depth and tracking cameras, have been increasingly used to overcome these issues.

This Special Issue aims to explore high-accuracy positioning systems for UAVs, focusing on the latest advances in both hardware and software. Application-oriented manuscripts are also encouraged, provided high-accuracy positioning is essential for the application.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Positioning sensors: GNSS, RTK, PPK (post-processing kinematic), PPP (precise point positioning); optical-based positioning; depth cameras; LIDAR (light detection and ranging); radar-based positioning.
  • Sensor fusion (e.g., IMU + RTK).
  • Indoor, outdoor, and indoor–outdoor systems.
  • Applications where high positioning accuracy is required: radar (e.g., enabling synthetic aperture radar approaches), antenna measurement, mapping, among others.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. María García Fernández
Dr. Guillermo Álvarez-Narciandi
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

  • unmanned aerial vehicles
  • high-accuracy positioning
  • RTK
  • GNSS
  • Depth cameras
  • LIDAR
  • sensor fusion
  • airborne radar systems
  • synthetic aperture radar
  • airborne antenna measurement systems

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

16 pages, 12570 KiB  
Article
New Concept of Smart UAS-GCP: A Tool for Precise Positioning in Remote-Sensing Applications
by Nicola Angelo Famiglietti, Pietro Miele, Antonino Memmolo, Luigi Falco, Angelo Castagnozzi, Raffaele Moschillo, Carmine Grasso, Robert Migliazza, Giulio Selvaggi and Annamaria Vicari
Drones 2024, 8(4), 123; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/drones8040123 - 26 Mar 2024
Viewed by 668
Abstract
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 introduces an innovative tool, smart GCPs, which combines different georeferencing procedures, offering [...] Read more.
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 introduces an innovative tool, smart GCPs, which combines different georeferencing procedures, offering a range of advantages. It can serve three fundamental purposes concurrently: (1) as a drone takeoff platform; (2) as a base station, allowing the acquisition of raw global navigation satellite system (GNSS) data for post-processed kinematic (PPK) surveys or by providing real-time GNSS corrections for precision positioning; (3) as a rover in the network real-time kinematic (NRTK) mode, establishing its position in real time with centimetric precision. The prototype has undergone testing in a dedicated study area, yielding good results for all three geodetic correction techniques: PPK, RTK, and GCP, achieving centimeter-level accuracy. Nowadays, this versatile prototype represents a unique external instrument, which is also easily transportable and able to connect to the GNSS RING network, obtaining real-time positioning corrections for a wide range of applications that require precise positioning. This capability is essential for environmental applications that require a multitemporal UAS-based study. When the real-time RING data are accessible to the scientific community operating in RS surveying, this work could be a helpful guide for researchers approaching such investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue UAV Positioning: From Ground to Sky)
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