Aerial Launch and Recovery for Mother-Daughter UAV Systems

Chair:
Jianwen Huo  Southwest University of Science and Technology, China

Key Words: Mother-Daughter UAV, Aerial Launch and Recovery, Docking Mechanism, Mission Planning, Cooperative Control

Information: Mother-daughter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems employ a collaborative architecture in which a carrier drone deploys multiple smaller daughter drones to execute tasks. This approach dramatically extends the operational radius for logistics and improves efficiency in wide-area inspection and emergency response. Despite these advantages, practical deployment still faces considerable hurdles: complex aerodynamic interference during the safe separation of daughter drones from the carrier platform, the demand for high-precision relative navigation and autonomous docking during midair recovery, and the real-time robustness required for multi-agent mission planning. This special session will address these critical bottlenecks by showcasing the latest advances in aerodynamic modeling, autonomous guidance, docking mechanisms, and swarm control. The goal is to advance engineering solutions tailored for civilian applications—including low-altitude logistics, forest monitoring, and maritime search and rescue—and to bridge the gap between technology demonstration and large-scale operational use.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to: 

• Design of Lightweight / Compliant Docking and Capture Mechanisms and Rigid-Flexible Coupled Dynamics Modeling
• Cooperative Mission Planning and Dynamic Rescheduling Methods for Mother-Daughter UAVs
• Cooperative Control Strategies for Mother-Daughter UAV Formations
• High-Precision Relative Navigation, Guidance, and Control Technologies for Autonomous Aerial Recovery

Submission Deadline: June 30, 2026 (the second round)