Unmanned Aircraft Systems with Autonomous Navigation, 2nd Edition

The aim of this Reprint is to highlight recent advances and emerging technologies in the field of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs), with a particular focus on solutions that improve autonomy, efficiency, and operational reliability. The collected contributions reflect the strongly multidisciplinary nature of UAS research, encompassing areas such as perception and navigation, swarm intelligence, communication systems, flight dynamics, and artificial intelligence-driven design and optimization. Overall, the works presented illustrate how the integration of advanced sensing technologies, distributed coordination strategies, novel communication paradigms, and data-driven methodologies is shaping the next generation of aerial platforms. From low-cost intelligent solutions for real-world applications to advanced optimization frameworks and secure swarm architectures, these studies address both current challenges and future opportunities in the field, while also highlighting practical implementation aspects and experimental validation results. Furthermore, the inclusion of emerging paradigms such as aerial-assisted edge computing highlights the evolving role of UAVs as key enablers within interconnected and intelligent infrastructures. The diversity of approaches and applications featured in this Reprint underlines the rapid technological progress in the field, offering valuable insights for researchers and practitioners working toward the development of more autonomous, resilient, and scalable UAS ecosystems, with increasing relevance across both academic research and industrial deployment scenarios.