UAV Control and Communication Enabled Low-Altitude Economy: Challenges, Resilient Architecture and Co-design Strategies

2026-04-05

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenges posed by large-scale drone deployment in low-altitude economies, including coverage blind spots, unpredictable interference, and spectrum scarcity, which undermine communication link stability and hinder flight control coordination. To overcome these issues, this work proposes a three-layer resilient co-design architecture that deeply integrates communication and control functions. By jointly optimizing pre-flight strategic planning, in-flight adaptive operations, and system-level resource orchestration, the framework effectively bridges the gap between wireless link volatility and flight stability. The proposed approach significantly enhances the robustness and mission reliability of cellular-connected unmanned aerial vehicle systems, offering critical technical foundations for the evolution of intelligent low-altitude networks.

Abstract

The emerging low-altitude economy has catalyzed the large-scale deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), driving a paradigm shift in environment monitoring, logistics, and emergency response. However, operating within these environments presents notable challenges as pervasive coverage holes, unpredictable interference, and spectrum scarcity. To this end, this article present a communication and control co-design framework to enable a resilient architecture for cellular-connected UAVs. Specifically, we first characterize typical service applications and their stringent performance requirements, followed by a comprehensive analysis of the unique challenges. To bridge the gap between volatile wireless links and rigid flight stability, a three layered architecture is proposed, integrating pre-flight strategic planning, in-flight adaptive action, and system-level resource orchestration. Furthermore, we detail the key enabling technologies for communication and control co-design. Preliminary case studies are proposed to validate that the co-design framework significantly improve the resilience of cellular-connected UAV systems, providing a robust foundation for the evolution of intelligent low-altitude networks.

Problem

• UAV
• low-altitude economy
• coverage holes
• interference
• spectrum scarcity

Innovation

• co-design
• resilient architecture
• cellular-connected UAVs
• low-altitude economy
• adaptive control