The field of autonomous aerial systems is rapidly advancing, with a focus on improving navigation, safety, and efficiency. Researchers are exploring innovative approaches to address the challenges of autonomous flight, such as GPS-denied environments, external wrench estimation, and collaborative UAV networks. Noteworthy papers in this area include:
- External-Wrench Estimation for Aerial Robots Exploiting a Learned Model, which presents a hybrid dynamics model for accurate wrench estimation.
- Ready, Bid, Go! On-Demand Delivery Using Fleets of Drones with Unknown, Heterogeneous Energy Storage Constraints, which proposes a decentralised deployment strategy for UAVs with unknown energy storage capacities.
- Autonomous Drone for Dynamic Smoke Plume Tracking, which demonstrates a novel autonomous drone-based system for tracking dynamic smoke plumes in unsteady atmospheric conditions.