MDPI is pleased to host the upcoming conference, Drones 2026: Mapping the Knowledge. Taking place in Barcelona, Spain, from 11 to 13 November 2026, the in-person event will gather experts and industry professionals to share research and exchange ideas in the field of drone technology.

With important deadlines approaching, this article provides all the details you need to know about this conference.

What is the purpose of Drones 2026?

Sponsored by the Drones journal, the conference will provide an engaging networking platform for discussing cutting-edge research, emerging challenges and future directions in the field of drone technology.

The conference will bring together experts from around the world and explore a variety of topics through sessions including keynote lectures and presentations.

Schedule overview

The event will host sessions on:

• Drone design and development
• Networks and communications
• Guidance, navigation and control
• Artificial intelligence applications for drones
• Drones in agriculture and forestry
• Drones in security and defence
• Drones in geospatial industry
• Emerging applications of drones

The above sessions will be delivered by a mix of keynote and invited speakers:

• Katerina Margariti – Acceligence, Greece
• Dr. Carlos Miguel Tavares Calafate – Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV), Spain
• Ricardo Díaz-Delgado – Agencia Espacial Española (AEE), Spain
• Dr. Francesco Nex – University of Twente, the Netherlands
• Fabio Remondino – Bruno Kessler Foundation, Italy
• Dr. Belén Riveiro Rodríguez – Universidad de Vigo, Spain

Event awards

The journal is pleased to offer two awards for participants of Drones 2026, including Best Poster Presentation and Best Oral Presentation.

MDPI’s awards programme ensures that the outstanding contributions of academics are recognised. To learn more about the Drones journal awards, click here.

Participating in Drones 2026

Attendees can submit abstracts for a chance to present their work in the form of oral and poster presentation until 14 July 2026. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 11 August 2026.

Registration for the Drones conference will be open until 30 October 2026 – please note that the number of participants is limited.

For attendees who have submitted an abstract to present at the event, the covering author must register by 13 October 2026. Abstracts without completed registration by this date will be withdrawn.

Attendees also have the exciting opportunity to contribute a full manuscript to journal Drones with a 20% discount on publication fees.

Participants are also encouraged to publish an extended conference paper in the MDPI Proceedings journal Engineering Proceedings for free when submitting their abstract. After the conference, interested authors will be invited to submit their manuscript to the Engineering Proceedings journal by 23 December 2026.

To find out more details about the upcoming conference and how to get involved, you can visit the event homepage on Sciforum. Keep an eye on our conferences blog page to stay up to date with any future conferences that MDPI will be involved in.