From Air to Ground: Intelligent Sensing and Acting Collaboration for Plant Protection

Plant protection is entering a new era driven by autonomous sensing and intelligent action across multiple platforms. Persistent crop losses from pests and diseases remain a critical challenge for global food security, yet current protection practices often rely on fragmented aerial and ground-based interventions. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionized real-time monitoring through high-resolution imaging and mapping, while ground robots and IoT sensor networks add precision in localized interventions. Despite these advances, the lack of cohesive air–ground collaboration still limits the scalability and efficiency of field operations. Emerging studies demonstrate that cross-platform coordination leveraging AI-based data fusion and communication can significantly enhance coverage, responsiveness, and resource optimization. However, challenges remain in developing unified systems that enable secure, low-latency data exchange, adaptive modeling across heterogeneous hardware, and real-world validation at farm scale.This Research Topic aims to advance integrated intelligent frameworks that connect aerial scouting and ground actuation to achieve proactive, precise, and sustainable plant protection. The objective is to establish robust multi-agent systems capable of jointly perceiving crop health, planning interventions, and actuating tasks in closed feedback loops. Key research questions include how to design scalable architectures that balance computational load between edge and cloud infrastructure, how to develop adaptive AI models that generalize across varied crop types and field conditions, and how to quantify environmental gains from reduced chemical use. By combining developments in computer vision, robotics, agricultural engineering, and data science, this Research Topic seeks to enable a cohesive paradigm shift from isolated operations to coordinated air–ground agroecosystems.The scope of this Research Topic covers the design, implementation, and evaluation of collaborative aerial and ground-based technologies for precision crop protection. We encourage multidisciplinary perspectives that link sensing, intelligence, and actuation in smart agriculture. To gather further insights in this area, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Cooperative UAV–UGV mission planning, navigation, and task allocationo Multi-modal data fusion combining aerial imagery, LiDAR, hyperspectral, and IoT sensor inputso AI-based pest detection, mapping, and decision-to-action frameworkso Real-time communication protocols and edge–cloud architectures for precision interventionso Digital twins and simulation platforms for air–ground coordinationo Lightweight deep learning models for onboard processing in constrained environmentso Sustainability metrics assessing pesticide reduction, energy efficiency, and cost-effectivenesso User-centric interfaces and decision-support systems for farmers and agronomistsWe invite original research articles, reviews, and case studies contributing to the development of synergistic air–ground plant protection systems. Topic editors: Zhichong Wang, Longlong Li, Shilin Wang, Ivan Zyrianoff Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83940/from-air-to-ground-intelligent-sensing-and-acting-collaboration-for-plant-protection