{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,14]],"date-time":"2026-10-14T04:48:43Z","timestamp":1791953323526,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"19","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["62361136811"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62361136811"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["62174091"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62174091"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["62201294"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201294"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["62361136811"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62361136811"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["62174091"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62174091"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"award":["62201294"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62201294"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>UAV-enabled Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) systems simultaneously support target sensing and communication and, combined with their abilities in autonomy and control situations, they have the potential to be deployed for search and rescue tasks that were, previously, challenging or impossible. However, the limited apertures of UAV-mounted physical arrays restrict angular resolution and multi-target sensing capability. This work proposes a method for implementing virtual arrays in UAV-assisted MIMO-OFDM ISAC systems to enhance the multi-target sensing capability. With a range of possibilities including transmit\u2013receive channel pairings and two virtual-array configurations, Virtual-7 and Virtual-10 are developed to form greater effective apertures out of a 4\u00d74 ISAC transceiver. A sensing model based on virtual arrays and the corresponding signal-processing procedure are established for angle estimation and for sensing-performance investigation. Simulation results show that ISAC systems with virtual arrays perform better in terms of multi-target detection. The proposed method for virtual-array establishment can, potentially, be applied in UAV-ISACs for high-resolution sensing with a low-profile configuration requirement.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26196221","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T14:19:37Z","timestamp":1790777977000},"page":"6221","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Virtual-Array Implementation for High Performance Multi-Target Angular Sensing in UAV-ISAC Systems"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-2395-3094","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jing","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Transportation and Civil Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9201-4511","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yongwei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Transportation and Civil Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8159-7173","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhaozong","family":"Meng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300401, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0590-7106","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Orhan","family":"Kaplan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Gazi University, 06560 Ankara, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1728","DOI":"10.1109\/JSAC.2022.3156632","article-title":"Integrated Sensing and Communications: Toward Dual-Functional Wireless Networks for 6G and Beyond","volume":"40","author":"Liu","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE J. 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