Active Inference Framework for Closed-Loop Sensing, Communication, and Control in UAV Systems

Integrated sensing and communication is a core technology for 6G, and its application to closed-loop sensing, communication, and control (SCC) enables various services. Existing SCC solutions often treat sensing and control separately, leading to suboptimal performance and resource usage. In this work, we introduce the active inference framework into SCC-enabled uncrewed aerial vehicle systems for joint state estimation, control, and sensing resource allocation. By formulating a unified generative model, the problem reduces to minimizing variational free energy for inference and expected free energy for action planning. Simulation results show that both control cost and sensing cost are reduced relative to baselines.

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Publication Details

Published
2026-04-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/icassp55912.2026.11463037
Primary Topic
UAV Applications and Optimization
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Active Inference Framework for Closed-Loop Sensing, Communication, and Control in UAV Systems

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UAV Applications and Optimization
article

Active Inference Framework for Closed-Loop Sensing, Communication, and Control in UAV Systems

Henk Wymeersch, Mehdi Bennis, Zhuojun Tian, Hui Chen, Li‐Ping Bai, Guangjin Pan
article en

Abstract

Integrated sensing and communication is a core technology for 6G, and its application to closed-loop sensing, communication, and control (SCC) enables various services. Existing SCC solutions often treat sensing and control separately, leading to suboptimal performance and resource usage. In this work, we introduce the active inference framework into SCC-enabled uncrewed aerial vehicle systems for joint state estimation, control, and sensing resource allocation. By formulating a unified generative model, the problem reduces to minimizing variational free energy for inference and expected free energy for action planning. Simulation results show that both control cost and sensing cost are reduced relative to baselines.

Chalmers University of Technology (SE), University of Oulu (FI)
HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
Openalex Percentile: Top 100%
UAV Applications and Optimization
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