New topic horizons for drone systems and applications

Abstract

Summary This journal (Drone Systems and Applications; DSA) conducted a targeted “horizon scan” during 2022 within our team of editors and associate editors. We asked—Which research areas currently under-represented in Drone Systems and Applications would you like to see more heavily represented in the future? The process highlighted five areas of interest and potential growth: Drones in the geosciences Aquatic drones Ground drones Drones within calibration/validation experiments Drones and computer vision Over the past two years (2020–22), the journal has published over 50 papers with a strong leaning towards aerial drones for ecology and also with an engineering focus. DSA is keen to receive new submissions addressing the five highlighted areas, which lie firmly within the aims and scope of the journal. Further to the horizon scan, we propose two special collections for the coming year—one addressing drone applications (drones in geoscience applications) and a second addressing drone systems (aquatic drone systems). We would like to hear from scientists and practitioners in these fields as both contributors and (or) collection editors.