{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,20]],"date-time":"2026-05-20T04:53:35Z","timestamp":1779252815843,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,16]],"date-time":"2025-12-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765843200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Robot. AI"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This study introduces a custom-built uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for precision agriculture, emphasizing modularity, adaptability, and affordability. Unlike commercial UAVs restricted by proprietary systems, this platform offers full customization and advanced autonomy capabilities.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The UAV integrates a Cube Blue flight controller for low-level control with a Raspberry Pi 4 companion computer that runs a Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithm for high-level trajectory optimization. Instead of conventional PID controllers, this work adopts an optimal control strategy using MPC. The system also incorporates Kalman filtering to enable adaptive mission planning and real-time coordination with a moving uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV). Testing was performed in both simulation and outdoor field environments, covering static and dynamic waypoint tracking as well as complex trajectories.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The UAV performed figure-eight, curved, and wind-disturbed trajectories with root mean square error values consistently between 8 and 20 cm during autonomous operations, with slightly higher errors in more complex trajectories. The system successfully followed a moving UGV along nonlinear, curved paths.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>These results demonstrate that the proposed UAV platform is capable of precise autonomous navigation and real-time coordination, confirming its suitability for real-world agricultural applications and offering a flexible alternative to commercial UAV systems.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/frobt.2025.1694952","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,16]],"date-time":"2025-12-16T05:17:12Z","timestamp":1765862232000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Custom UAV with model predictive control for autonomous static and dynamic trajectory tracking in agricultural fields"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Veera Venkata Ram Murali Krishna Rao","family":"Muvva","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kunjan Theodore","family":"Joseph","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yogesh","family":"Chawla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Santosh","family":"Pitla","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marilyn","family":"Wolf","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"868","DOI":"10.3390\/machines12120868","article-title":"Adaptive impedance control of multirotor uav for accurate and robust path following","volume":"12","author":"Ahmed","year":"2024","journal-title":"Machines"},{"key":"B2","volume-title":"Designing purpose-built drones for ardupilot pixhawk 2.1: build drones with ardupilot","author":"Audronis","year":"2017"},{"key":"B3","volume-title":"Unmanned aircraft systems: UAVS design, development and deployment","author":"Austin","year":"2011"},{"key":"B4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"10395","DOI":"10.3390\/rs61110395","article-title":"Estimating biomass of barley using crop surface models (csms) derived from uav-based rgb imaging","volume":"6","author":"Bendig","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"B5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"100401","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rico.2024.100401","article-title":"Autonomous drones and their influence on standardization of rules and regulations for operating: a brief overview","volume":"14","author":"Bhat","year":"2024","journal-title":"Results Control Optim."},{"key":"B6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"187","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCEREC.2015.7337041","article-title":"Uav obstacle avoidance using potential field under dynamic environment","volume-title":"2015 international conference on control, electronics, renewable energy and communications (ICCEREC)","author":"Budiyanto","year":"2015"},{"key":"B7","volume-title":"Cube pilot","year":"2025"},{"key":"B8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1884","DOI":"10.1109\/lra.2019.2898117","article-title":"How fast is too fast? the role of perception latency in high-speed sense and avoid","volume":"4","author":"Falanga","year":"2019","journal-title":"IEEE Robotics Automation Lett."},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"eaaz9712","DOI":"10.1126\/scirobotics.aaz9712","article-title":"Dynamic obstacle avoidance for quadrotors with event cameras","volume":"5","author":"Falanga","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci. Robotics"},{"key":"B10","article-title":"Unmanned aerial vehicles: an introduction (mercury learning and information)","author":"Garg","year":"2021"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"105385","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compag.2020.105385","article-title":"An automatic method for weed mapping in oat fields based on uav imagery","volume":"173","author":"Ga\u0161parovi\u0107","year":"2020","journal-title":"Comput. Electron. Agric."},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.48550\/arXiv.2502.10218","article-title":"Integrated multi-simulation environments for aerial robotics research","author":"Goldschmid","year":"2025","journal-title":"arXiv"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2514\/4.102615","volume-title":"Designing unmanned aircraft systems","author":"Gundlach","year":"2014"},{"key":"B14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"286","DOI":"10.3390\/drones9040286","article-title":"A review of path following, trajectory tracking, and formation control for autonomous underwater vehicles","volume":"9","author":"He","year":"2025","journal-title":"Drones"},{"key":"B15","volume-title":"Cube pilot","year":"2025"},{"key":"B16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1642","DOI":"10.1094\/pdis-08-18-1373-re","article-title":"An improved crop scouting technique incorporating unmanned aerial vehicle\u2013assisted multispectral crop imaging into conventional scouting practice for gummy stem blight in watermelon","volume":"103","author":"Kalischuk","year":"2019","journal-title":"Plant Dis."},{"key":"B17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"109","DOI":"10.1007\/s11370-022-00452-4","article-title":"Unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs): practical aspects, applications, open challenges, security issues, and future trends","volume":"16","author":"Mohsan","year":"2023","journal-title":"Intell. Serv. Robot."},{"key":"B18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCCI56745.2023.10128266","article-title":"Custom and design of agri drone","volume-title":"Proceedings of ICCCI 2023","author":"Muthukumar","year":"2023"},{"key":"B19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2514\/6.2021-0994","article-title":"Assuring learning-enabled components in small unmanned aircraft systems","volume-title":"AIAA scitech 2021 forum. 0994","author":"Muvva","year":"2021"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.2514\/6.2022-0789","article-title":"Autonomous uav landing on a moving uav using machine learning","volume-title":"AIAA SCITECH 2022 forum. 0789","author":"Muvva","year":"2022"},{"key":"B21","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.1016\/j.isprsjprs.2021.12.006","article-title":"Uav in the advent of the twenties: where we stand and what is next","volume":"184","author":"Nex","year":"2022","journal-title":"ISPRS J. Photogrammetry Remote Sens."},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2024.3378607","article-title":"An open-source uav platform for swarm robotics research: using cooperative sensor fusion for inter-robot tracking","author":"Oguz","year":"2024","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"B23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"166","DOI":"10.3390\/drones8040166","article-title":"Distributed localization for uav\u2013ugv cooperative systems using information consensus filter","volume":"8","author":"Ou","year":"2024","journal-title":"Drones"},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3349","DOI":"10.3390\/s24113349","article-title":"A review on the state of the art in copter drones and flight control systems","volume":"24","author":"Peksa","year":"2024","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"B25","volume-title":"Programming robots with ROS: a practical introduction to the robot operating system","author":"Quigley","year":"2015"},{"key":"B26","article-title":"Cooperative localization of uavs in multi-robot systems using deep learning-based detection","volume-title":"AIAA science and technology forum and exposition, AIAA SciTech forum 2025","author":"Rao","year":"2025"},{"key":"B27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"107017","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compag.2022.107017","article-title":"Drones in agriculture: a review and bibliometric analysis","volume":"198","author":"Rejeb","year":"2022","journal-title":"Comput. Electron. Agric."},{"key":"B28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1201\/9781003289623","volume-title":"A concise introduction to robot programming with ROS2","author":"Rico","year":"2022"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.3390\/s24010125","article-title":"Advances and challenges in drone detection and classification techniques: a state-of-the-art review","volume":"24","author":"Seidaliyeva","year":"2024","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"B30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"621","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-67361-5_40","article-title":"Airsim: high-fidelity visual and physical simulation for autonomous vehicles","volume-title":"Field and service robotics: results of the 11th international conference","author":"Shah","year":"2018"},{"key":"B31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.3390\/drones7010062","article-title":"Uav formation trajectory planning algorithms: a review","volume":"7","author":"Yang","year":"2023","journal-title":"Drones"},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"398","DOI":"10.3390\/drones7060398","article-title":"A review on unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing: platforms, sensors, data processing methods, and applications","volume":"7","author":"Zhang","year":"2023","journal-title":"Drones"},{"key":"B33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"605","DOI":"10.3390\/rs11060605","article-title":"Mapping maize water stress based on uav multispectral remote sensing","volume":"11","author":"Zhang","year":"2019","journal-title":"Remote Sens."}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Robotics and AI"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frobt.2025.1694952\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,16]],"date-time":"2025-12-16T05:17:15Z","timestamp":1765862235000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/frobt.2025.1694952\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,16]]},"references-count":33,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/frobt.2025.1694952"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/frobt.2025.1694952","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-9144"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-9144","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,16]]},"article-number":"1694952"}}