UAV Navigation

UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Ask about this topic

Overview

UAV navigation studies how drones estimate their position, understand nearby space, and choose motions to reach goals while avoiding obstacles and respecting vehicle limits. State estimation commonly uses visual-inertial or LiDAR-inertial odometry, sometimes combined with satellite imagery, semantic maps, or other sensors when GNSS is unavailable. Planners range from model predictive control, graph search, and trajectory optimization to reinforcement learning and vision-language-action models that follow natural-language goals; safety filters and control barrier functions are often used to constrain motion. A central challenge is making these systems reliable in unfamiliar, dynamic conditions while balancing safety, speed, energy use, onboard computation, and transfer from simulation to real flight.

Latest papers

CardsList

272 papers38 papers in the last four weeks, up 27% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

  1. GoalSwarm: Multi-UAV Semantic Coordination for Open-Vocabulary Object Navigation

    Mar 13, 2026MoniJesu Wonders James, Amir Atef Habel, Aleksey Fedoseev +1UAV NavigationObject-Goal Navigation

    The authors are with the Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory, Center for Digital Engineering, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia.

  2. Consistent and Efficient MSCKF-based LiDAR-Inertial Odometry with Inferred Cluster-to-Plane Constraints for UAVs

    Mar 13, 2026Jinwen Zhu, Xudong Zhao, Fangcheng Zhu +4LiDAR OdometryRobot State Estimation

    Meituan UAV, Beijing, China · Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Computer and Information Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE

  3. Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Based Chemical Plume Source Localization

    Mar 12, 2026Zhirun Li, Derek Hollenbeck, Ruikun Wu +4Multi-Agent Reinforcement LearningUAV Navigation

    Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA · Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Merced, CA 95343 USA · Department of Electrical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401 USA +3

  4. OnFly: Onboard Zero-Shot Aerial Vision-Language Navigation toward Safety and Efficiency

    Mar 11, 2026Guiyong Zheng, Yueting Ban, Mingjie Zhang +2Vision-Language NavigationAerial VLN

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, China. · Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China · The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China.

  5. Perception-Aware Communication-Free Multi-UAV Coordination in the Wild

    Mar 9, 2026Manuel Boldrer, Michal Kamler, Afzal Ahmad +1Multi-Robot CoordinationUAV Navigation

    Department of Cybernetics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Karlovo namesti 13, 121 35 Prague 2, Czechia.

  6. Edged USLAM: Edge-Aware Event-Based SLAM with Learning-Based Depth Priors

    Mar 9, 2026Şebnem Sarıözkan, Hürkan Şahin, Olaya Álvarez-Tuñón +1Visual-Inertial SLAMEvent-Based Vision

    Automatic Control Group (RAT), Paderborn University, 33098 Paderborn, Germany · EIVA A/S, and IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), Denmark

  7. Reasoning Knowledge-Gap in Drone Planning via LLM-based Active Elicitation

    Mar 8, 2026Zeyu Fang, Beomyeol Yu, Cheng Liu +5Human-Robot CollaborationLarge Language Model-Based Robot Planning

    George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA · Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

  8. Scale-Aware UAV-to-Satellite Cross-View Geo-Localization: A Semantic Geometric Approach

    Mar 8, 2026Yibin Ye, Shuo Chen, Kun Wang +5Cross-View Geo-LocalizationUAV Navigation

    College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China · Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Image Measurement and Vision Navigation, Changsha 410073, China · School of Information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China

  9. FreeFly-Thinking : Aligning Chain-of-Thought Reasoning with Continuous UAV Navigation

    Mar 7, 2026Jiaxu Zhou, Shaobo Wang, Zhiyuan Yang +2Aerial VLNUAV Navigation

    SJTU Paris Elite Institute of Technology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China · School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China · Tongji University, China

  10. Fly360: Omnidirectional Obstacle Avoidance within Drone View

    Mar 6, 2026Xiangkai Zhang, Dizhe Zhang, WenZhuo Cao +5UAV NavigationRobot Collision Avoidance

    Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China · Insta360 Research, Shenzhen, China · Wuhan University,Wuhan, China.

  11. Real-Time Thermal-Inertial Odometry on Embedded Hardware for High-Speed GPS-Denied Flight

    Mar 2, 2026Austin Stone, Mark Petersen, Cammy PetersonGated Recurrent UnitInertial Odometry

    Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602 USA.

  12. Goal-Oriented Semantic Communication for ISAC-Enabled Robotic Obstacle Avoidance

    Mar 2, 2026Wenjie Liu, Yansha Deng, Henk WymeerschTask-Oriented Semantic CommunicationIntegrated Sensing and Communication

    Department of Engineering, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, U.K. · Department of Electrical Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.

  13. Geometric Look-Angle Shaping Strategy for Enclosed Inspection

    Feb 27, 2026Amit Shivam, Manuel C. R. M. Fernandes, Sergio Vinha +1UAV NavigationRobotic Inspection

    SYSTEC-ISR ARISE, Faculdade de Engenharia, Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

  14. Autonomous Inspection of Power Line Insulators with UAV on an Unmapped Transmission Tower

    Feb 27, 2026Václav Riss, Vít Krátký, Robert Pěnička +1Robotic InspectionIndustrial Inspection

  15. Acceleration-Based Control of Fixed-Wing UAVs for Guidance Applications

    Feb 27, 2026Jixiang Wang, Siyuan Yang, Ziyi Wu +5Aerial RoboticsUAV Navigation

    School of Aerospace Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. · Autonomous Robotics Research Centre, Technology Innovation Institute, P.O.Box: 9639, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

  16. SCOPE: Skeleton Graph-Based Computation-Efficient Framework for Autonomous UAV Exploration

    Feb 26, 2026Kai Li, Shengtao Zheng, Linkun Xiu +4Autonomous Robot ExplorationRobot Navigation

    Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China · School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639956

  17. Chasing Ghosts: A Simulation-to-Real Olfactory Navigation Stack with Optional Vision Augmentation

    Feb 23, 2026Kordel K. France, Ovidiu Daescu, Latifur Khan +1Robot NavigationUAV Navigation

    Dept. of Computer Science University of Texas at Dallas Richardson, TX, USA

  18. Large Language Model-Assisted UAV Operations and Communications: A Multifaceted Survey and Tutorial

    Feb 23, 2026Yousef Emami, Hao Zhou, Radha Reddy +5Language Model-Based ControlUAV Navigation

  19. Bluetooth Phased-array Aided Inertial Navigation Using Factor Graphs: Experimental Verification

    Feb 19, 2026Glen Hjelmerud Mørkbak Sørensen, Torleiv H. Bryne, Kristoffer Gryte +1GNSS-Denied LocalizationInertial Navigation

    Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway

  20. Hybrid F' and ROS2 Architecture for Vision-Based Autonomous Flight: Design and Experimental Validation

    Feb 17, 2026Abdelrahman Metwally, Monijesu James, Aleksey Fedoseev +3RoboticsUAV Navigation

    Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Moscow, Russia

  21. FC-Vision: Real-Time Visibility-Aware Replanning for Occlusion-Free Aerial Target Structure Scanning in Unknown Environments

    Feb 14, 2026Chen Feng, Yang Xu, Shaojie ShenNext-Best-View PlanningUAV Navigation

    Dept. of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.

  22. High-Speed Vision-Based Flight in Clutter with Safety-Shielded Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 9, 2026Jiarui Zhang, Chengyong Lei, Chengjiang Dai +4RL for RoboticsUAV Navigation

    Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, College of Control Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China · Differential Robotics, Hangzhou 311121, China.

  23. SPOT: Spatio-Temporal Obstacle-free Trajectory Planning for UAVs in Unknown Dynamic Environments

    Feb 1, 2026Astik Srivastava, Thomas J Chackenkulam, Bitla Bhanu Teja +2UAV NavigationSafe Motion Planning

    Robotics Research Center, IIIT Hyderabad, India · IIT-BHU, India

  24. A Multimodal Large Language Model-Driven Framework for Context-Aware UAV Emergency Landing Site Selection

    Feb 1, 2026Chunliang Hua, Lei Zhang, Jiayang Sun +2UAV NavigationMultimodal Large Language Models

    School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China · LASER, International Digital Economy Academy, Shenzhen 510085, China · Department of Electronic Engineering, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China

  25. RVC-NMPC: Nonlinear Model Predictive Control with Reciprocal Velocity Constraints for Mutual Collision Avoidance in Agile UAV Flight

    Dec 9, 2025Vit Kratky, Robert Penicka, Parakh M. Gupta +2Multi-Robot Motion PlanningNonlinear MPC

    Department of Cybernetics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

  26. Reflection-Based Relative Localization for Cooperative UAV Teams Using Active Markers

    Nov 21, 2025Tim Lakemann, Daniel Bonilla Licea, Viktor Walter +1Relative Pose EstimationCooperative Localization

    Multi-Robot Systems Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 2, Prague, Czech Republic · Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco

  27. HumanHalo: Safe and Efficient 3D Navigation Among Humans via Minimally Conservative MPC

    Oct 20, 2025Simon Schaefer, Helen Oleynikova, Sandra Hirche +1Constrained Motion PlanningUAV Navigation

    Technical University of Munich · ETH Zurich

  28. STITCHER: Constrained Trajectory Planning in Complex Environments with Real-Time Motion Primitive Search

    Oct 16, 2025Helene J. Levy, Brett T. LopezConstrained Motion PlanningTrajectory Generation

    VECTR Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  29. Real-Time Maneuver Planning for Fixed-Wing UAVs in Unsteady Flows Using a GPU-Accelerated Vortex Particle Model

    Sep 19, 2025Ashwin Gupta, Kevin Wolfe, Gino Perrotta +1UAV NavigationMotion Planning

    Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering · Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab

  30. Curriculum-Adapted Robust Reinforcement Learning for UAV Deconfliction in Adversarial Environments

    Jun 26, 2025Deepak Kumar Panda, Adolfo Perrusquia, Weisi GuoRobust RLUAV Navigation

    the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cranfield University, MK43 0AL Cranfield, U.K