Development Trends and Key Technologies of Intelligent UAVs

This seminar reviews the evolution, system architecture, and intelligent transformation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), focusing on their operational roles and future trajectories. It traces UAV development from early reconnaissance platforms to modern strike assets and autonomous swarms, highlighting lessons from recent conflicts. The seminar then examines the paradigm shift from low‑dynamic, single‑mission operations to high‑dynamic, multi‑role, highly contested environments, demanding modularity, cross‑domain adaptability, long endurance, stealth, and increasing autonomy. Analysis of ground control stations, data links, and onboard sensors reveals key limitations: teleoperation delays, sensory deprivation, and communication latency. To overcome these constraints, five intelligent technology clusters are identified: (1) multi‑source fusion for environment/target/fault perception; (2) autonomous decision‑making for trajectory planning; (3) advanced human‑machine interaction (including brain‑computer interfaces); (4) swarm coordination; and (5) intelligent control (genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, neural networks). The presentation concludes with next‑generation smart UAV programmes (XQ‑58A, MQ‑28A, Taranis) and emphasises that advances in AI and adaptive autonomy will enable UAVs to execute fully independent operations in complex, adversarial settings, reshaping future air warfare and low‑altitude economy ecosystems.

Prof. Wenxing Fu is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU). He currently serves as Deputy Director of the Key Technology Integration Platform for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) established by the Ministry of Education, Deputy Director (presiding over daily work) of the 365^th Institute (UAV Research Institute) at NPU, and Deputy Director of the Unmanned System Technology Institute. He received his BEng, MEng, and PhD in Aircraft Design from Northwestern Polytechnical University. He was a Visiting Scholar at Cranfield University, UK, from 2012 to 2013.

His research addresses both fundamental and applied challenges in unmanned aerial systems, with particular interests in intelligent flight vehicles, multi-UAV cooperative control, and simulation technologies. His work has been recognised with the First Prize of Shaanxi Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award (2023) for “Key Technologies and Applications of Multi-UAV Cooperative Mission Control”, and the First Prize of Technical Invention Award of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2025) for “Key Technologies of Formation Control for Small and Medium-Sized Fixed-Wing UAVs”. He also serves as Executive Director of the UAV and Micro Air Vehicle Division of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Director of the Shaanxi Engineering Research Center for Air‑Ground Cooperative Security, and Deputy Editor‑in‑Chief of the Journal of Unmanned Systems Technology.