1. Origin of Drones and Autonomous Vehicles
As a core technology of the 21st century, autonomous systems have developed rapidly worldwide. Early research activities on autonomous systems were mostly used for military purposes, and more recently they are widely applied in civilian and commercial fields. Early autonomous system research and development focused on single aircraft. Currently, research on the autonomous system is shifted from a single individual to a cluster. In the past decades, due to the explosive market demand, the autonomous systems industry has developed very rapidly. Its industrial practice has emerged ahead of academic research in some directions.
Nowadays, due to the urgent needs of diverse groups for the design of low-cost, high-efficiency, and low-risk autonomous vehicles, research and development on autonomous systems become a hotspot in the international academic and industrial community. The future development of autonomous systems requires a continuous focus on the frontiers of technologies to ensure novelty and safety.
Within this context, the new open-access journal, *Drones and Autonomous Vehicles*, is launched. We aim to become an authoritative platform to report high-impact, cutting-edge research work, and new developments in drones and autonomous vehicles.
2. Why Would You Choose Drones and Autonomous Vehicles?
*2.1. Comprehensive Scope*
*Drones and Autonomous Vehicles* is an international open-access journal that will publish high-quality papers in all fields of autonomous systems, such as algorithms, automate software, hardware research, and applications related to drones and vehicle systems. The journal will cover software developments, structure design, and other technical developments and applications of autonomous vehicles and systems.
The journal welcomes high-level original research articles and timely reviews on theoretical and experimental studies. All submitted manuscripts are subject to a thorough peer-reviewing process.
Areas of particular interests include, but are not limited to:
• Algorithm and mathematical research related to autonomous systems
• Software development of autonomous systems
• Mechanics and control of autonomous vehicles and systems
• Design of autonomous vehicles and systems
• Hardware development and material research
• Applications of autonomous vehicles and systems
• Policies and management of autonomous vehicles and systems
• Unmanned aerial vehicles and systems
• Unmanned ground vehicles and systems
• Unmanned surface vehicles and systems
• Unmanned underwater vehicles and systems
*2.2. Professional Team*
*Drones and Autonomous Vehicles* has a strong Editorial Board, which consists of 53 experts from 13 countries with a diversity of very senior and well-known researchers, as well as youth representatives covering very different aspects of the field of autonomous vehicles and systems. The Editorial Board will be updated regularly to include more of the world’s leading scientists in the field of autonomous systems. The Editor-in-Chief Prof. Zhengtao Ding from University of Manchester, with rich research and editorial experience, is responsible for the academic quality of the publication process, the strategy of the journal development, and the promotion across the world. The co-Editor-in-Chief Prof. Haibin Duan, a senior researcher from Beihang University, is responsible for professional and strategic suggestions for the journal development, and promotion in the Chinese Market.
*2.3. Reliable Support*
All papers will be rigorously reviewed, and a constructive decision will be expected within 2-6 weeks of sub-mission. All accepted manuscripts will be professionally language edited and properly formatted for publication. The authority of *Drones and Autonomous Vehicles* is fully guaranteed.
Each article will be published online immediately upon acceptance with open access for free view and down-load under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.
In order to encourage more authors to publish with the journal, the SCIEPublish platform will not charge any publication fees during the first two years.
3. Perspectives
Authors will find that *Drones and Autonomous Vehicles* is an advanced and reliable publication platform for scientific communications. We believe that we can make Drones and Autonomous Vehicles a rigorous and sustainable open-access journal with an ever-increasing research impact through our joint effort in the near future.
