Science Explorer Back to mapMap
Discussion
Topic · Aerospace Engineering

UAV Applications and Optimization

UAV Applications and Optimization is a research topic within Aerospace Engineering. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1960. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the communication, networking, and applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), covering topics such as wireless communications, trajectory optimization, energy-efficient communication, 5G and beyond, drone applications in various fields including disaster management and precision agriculture, mobile edge computing, security and privacy aspects, and integration with IoT.

  • Wireless Communications
  • UAV Networks
  • Trajectory Optimization
  • Energy-Efficient Communication
  • 5G and Beyond
  • Drone Applications
  • Mobile Edge Computing
  • Security and Privacy
  • Disaster Management
  • Precision Agriculture
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1960
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.8%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+112%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
57% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
UAV Applications and Optimization

Which countries lead UAV Applications and Optimization research?

By volume, China and India publish the most (4.7k and 973 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 4.7k works
  2. 2 India 973 works
  3. 3 United States 890 works
  4. 4 South Korea 355 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 303 works
  6. 6 Canada 227 works
  7. 7 Japan 221 works
  8. 8 Italy 187 works
  9. 9 Saudi Arabia 175 works
  10. 10 Türkiye 171 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 57.5%India: 11.8%United States: 10.8%South Korea: 4.3%6 others listed: 15.6%57%largest
China4,737 · 57.5%India973 · 11.8%United States890 · 10.8%South Korea355 · 4.3%6 others listed1,284 · 15.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead UAV Applications and Optimization research?

By volume in 2022-now, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics publishes the most UAV Applications and Optimization research, followed by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and National University of Defense Technology.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 174 works
  2. 2 Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 150 works
  3. 3 National University of Defense TechnologyChina 150 works
  4. 4 Beihang UniversityChina 135 works
  5. 5 Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 122 works
  6. 6 Beijing Institute of TechnologyChina 97 works
  7. 7 University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 92 works
  8. 8 Xidian UniversityChina 92 works
  9. 9 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 91 works
  10. 10 Southeast UniversityChina 86 works

Who are the leading researchers in UAV Applications and Optimization?

The most-cited researchers publishing on UAV Applications and Optimization include Xiaogang Wang, Kai You Wang and Trevor J. Darrell.

  1. 1 Xiaogang Wang China 260k citations
  2. 2 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  3. 3 Trevor J. Darrell United States 206k citations
  4. 4 Luc Van Gool Switzerland 177k citations
  5. 5 H. Vincent Poor United States 165k citations
  6. 6 Han Zhang China 161k citations
  7. 7 Seyedali Mirjalili Australia 154k citations
  8. 8 Mehdi Hosseinzadeh Iran 137k citations
  9. 9 Kevin J. Gaston United Kingdom 123k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in UAV Applications and Optimization?

The most cited paper in UAV Applications and Optimization is "Wireless communications with unmanned aerial vehicles: opportunities and challenges" (Yong Zeng, Rui Zhang, Teng Joon Lim, 2016), with 4,214 citations. Next come "Smart Radio Environments Empowered by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: How it Works, State of Research, and Road Ahead" (3,385) and "Optimal LAP Altitude for Maximum Coverage" (3,274).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Wireless communications with unmanned aerial vehicles: opportunities and challenges Yong Zeng, Rui Zhang, Teng Joon Lim · IEEE Communications Magazine Open access May 2016 4,214
2 Smart Radio Environments Empowered by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces: How it Works, State of Research, and Road Ahead Marco Di Renzo, Alessio Zappone, Mérouane Debbah et al. · Aaltodoc (Aalto University) Open access 2020 3,385
3 Optimal LAP Altitude for Maximum Coverage Akram Al‐Hourani, Sithamparanathan Kandeepan, Simon Lardner · IEEE Wireless Communications Letters Open access 24 Jul 2014 3,274
4 SiamRPN++: Evolution of Siamese Visual Tracking With Very Deep Networks Bo Li, Wei Wu, Qiang Wang et al. Conference paper Jun 2019 2,563
5 An Overview of Recent Progress in the Study of Distributed Multi-Agent Coordination Yongcan Cao, Wenwu Yu, Wei Ren et al. · IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics Open access 15 Sep 2012 2,442
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is UAV Applications and Optimization research done?

The largest centres of UAV Applications and Optimization research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Xi'an (China) and Changsha (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Luocheng and Cranfield.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 975 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 562 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 440 works
  4. 4 ChangshaChina 229 works
  5. 5 ShanghaiChina 198 works
  6. 6 ChengduChina 170 works
  7. 7 SeoulSouth Korea 162 works
  8. 8 GuangzhouChina 155 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 151 works
  10. 10 ShenzhenChina 133 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LuochengCN · 24.0 works33×
  2. CranfieldGB · 20.1 works15×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in UAV Applications and Optimization than the world average.

See UAV Applications and Optimization on the map

Where is the best place to study UAV Applications and Optimization?

Among universities, judged by research, Nanyang Technological University, Chosun University and Beihang University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%60%mean 18.55%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Chosun UniversityNanyang Technologica…Beihang UniversityNanjing University o…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 66.729.5%6.2×46 +68.1%
2Chosun UniversitySouth Korea 61.950.4%9.5×10 +14.8%
3Beihang UniversityChina 60.112.8%13.0×135 +97.8%
4Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 59.59.5%20.9×174 +170.0%
5Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 58.726.2%3.4×27 +229.9%
6Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 58.212.1%11.4×122 +119.8%
7National University of Defense TechnologyChina 57.911.1%20.6×150 +119.9%
8Beijing University of Posts and TelecommunicationsChina 57.38.9%24.9×150 +52.4%
9Southeast UniversityChina 55.712.4%6.2×86 +80.2%
10University of Electronic Science and Technology of ChinaChina 55.612.6%8.7×92 +155.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in UAV Applications and Optimization, country by country

Is UAV Applications and Optimization research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 112% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are UAV Applications and Optimization.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is UAV Applications and Optimization as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.037% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%UAV Applications and Optimization0.055% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of UAV Applications and Optimization over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%UAV Applications and Optimization9.8% in 202520102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

Ask a question or share a note about UAV Applications and Optimization. Posts are plain text and can be reported.