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This paper investigates two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)-based real-world scenarios that leverage acoustic scene awareness: (1) localization and recognition of human speech for search-and-rescue missions, and (2) detection and classification of other UAVs for counter-drone applications. To address these tasks, we design two deep learning models based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and a feature-based approach. These models process acoustic signals captured by two types of microphone arrays mounted on UAVs: a 4-microphone linear array and a 19-microphone spherical array. Each model performs direction of arrival (DOA) estimation and source classification under challenging ego-noise conditions using real-world datasets recorded in controlled experimental setups. We evaluate the models across different signal-to-ego-noise ratios and training configurations. Results show robust performance in both localization and recognition tasks, with approximately 6 degrees mean error and 7 degrees root mean square error (RMSE) for DOA estimations in the human speech scenario with multi-speaker classification accuracy till 0.95, and 3-5 degrees mean error and 7-11 degrees RMSE for DOA estimations in the UAV sound scenario with multi-UAV classification accuracy till 0.98. This demonstrates the potential of deep acoustic learning for UAV-based scene understanding in complex operational environments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/10692509261417106","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]],"date-time":"2026-02-02T14:02:09Z","timestamp":1770040929000},"page":"182-199","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Deep acoustic learning on unmanned aerial vehicles for real-time human and drone detection"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"33","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2826-0803","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"Toma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8042-0333","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniele","family":"Salvati","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0762-708X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Axel","family":"De Nardin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0820-7260","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Silvia","family":"Zottin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3206-2719","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivan","family":"Scagnetto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9106-5763","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Giovanni","family":"Ferrin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6091-4953","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlo","family":"Drioli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8425-6892","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gian","family":"Luca Foresti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Physics (DMIF), University of Udine, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,2]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Zhang J Zhang Y. 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