ABSTRACT

Unmanned vehicles/systems (UVs/USs) technology has exploded in recent years. Unmanned vehicles are operated in the air, on the ground, or on/in the water. Unmanned vehicles play a more significant role in many civil application domains, such as remote sensing, surveillance, precision agriculture and rescue operations rather than manned systems. Unmanned vehicles outperform manned systems in terms of mission safety and operational costs. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely utilized in the civil infrastructure because of their low maintenance costs, ease of deployment, hovering capability, and excellent mobility. The UAVs can gather photographs faster and more accurately than satellite imagery, allowing for more prompt assessment. This study provides a comprehensive overview of UAV civil applications, including classification and requirements. Also encompassed with research trends, critical civil challenges, and future insights on how UAVs with artificial intelligence (smart AI). Furthermore, this paper discusses the specifications of several drone models and simulators. According to the literature review, precision agriculture is one of the civil applications of smart UAVs. Unmanned aerial vehicles aid in the detection of weeds, crop management, and the identification of plant diseases, among other issues, paving the path for researchers to create drone applications in the future.

Keywords
Drones; Altitude; Flight Mechanics; Applications; Artificial intelligence; Image processing; Machine learning

INTRODUCTION

The manned system is utilized in challenging circumstances when there is limited control, autonomy or legal constraints. The introduction of modern military manned vehicles, such as aircraft, has narrowed the time when some personnel are at risk. Some defence experts believe that low-cost unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are now being developed, will eventually replace advanced manned military aircraft (Hildmann and Kovacs 2019Hildmann H, Kovacs E (2019) Review: Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as mobile sensing platforms (MSPs) for disaster response, civil security and public safety. Drones 3(3):59. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3030059.
https://doi.org/10.3390/drones3030059... ). It is cost-effective to use UAVs in hazardous areas where human aircraft face a high risk of being turned away. Because an unmanned vehicle (UV) is without an aircrew, its range and endurance are limited, as is the potential of death.

An unmanned system (US) or UV is an electromechanical system that does not have a human operator on board. Unmanned vehicles can be controlled remotely or independently, depending on pre-programmed programs. A UV/US is used in several settings because of advancements in safety. As the spectrum of uses for drones widens, benefits such as improved mission safety and lower operational costs become available (Zhuo et al. 2017Zhuo X, Koch T, Kurz F, Fraundorfer F, Reinartz P (2017) Automatic UAV image geo-registration by matching UAV images to georeferenced image data. Remote Sens 9(4):376. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9040376
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs9040376... ). There are three categories of unmanned vehicles/systems:

• Unmanned/Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (UAV/AAV) (Demir et al. 2015Demir KA, Cicibaş H, Arica N (2015) Unmanned aerial vehicle domain: Areas of research. Def Sci J 65(4):319-329. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.8631
  https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.8631... ).

• Unmanned/Autonomous Ground Vehicle (UGV/AGV) (George Fernandez et al. 2019George Fernandez S, Vijayakumar K, Palanisamy R, Selvakumar K, Karthikeyan D, Selvabharathi D, Vidyasagar S, Kalyanasundhram V (2019) Unmanned and autonomous ground vehicle. Int J Electr Comput Eng 9(5):4466-4472. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v9i5.pp4466-4472
  https://doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v9i5.pp44... ).

• Unmanned/Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (UUV/AUV) (Jain et al. 2015Jain SK, Bora S, Singh M (2015) A review paper on: Autonomous underwater vehicle. Int J Sci Eng Res 6(2):38-40.).

Other UV classes do not share the broad popularity of UAVs.

In recent years, technology connected to UAVs has been consistently and swiftly advancing. Unmanned aerial vehicles, often known as drones, are the most prevalent type of US. Drone stands for “dynamic remotely operated navigation equipment”. A UV can fly in the air, surveying large areas, and reaching human-hostile environments. Unmanned aerial vehicles with increasing degrees of autonomy can perform many functions, such as automated take-off, landing, obstacle avoidance, and course planning (Oubbati et al. 2019Oubbati O, Atiquzzaman M, Lorenz P, Tareque H, Hossain S (2019) Routing in flying ad hoc networks: Survey, constraints, and future challenge perspectives. IEEE Access 7:81057-81105. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2923840
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2923... ). Drones are transforming the world into a cyber-mechatronics environment. A drone is a one-of-a-kind aircraft comprised of advanced robotics, aeronautics, and electrical components. Drones have shown to be a legitimate alternative for obtaining information that would otherwise be transmitted faster and more cost-effectively by satellites (Alzahrani et al. 2020Alzahrani B, Oubbati OS, Barnawi A, Atiquzzaman M, Alghazzawi D (2020) UAV assistance paradigm: State-of-the-art in applications and challenges. J Netw Comput Appl 166:102706. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2020.102706
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2020.1027... ).

Unmanned aerial vehicles can capture outstanding aerial photographs, aerial films and collect vast amounts of correct data due to their excellent cameras equipped with top-notch sensors. In many domains, such as surveillance, transportation, farming, and disaster management, drones are a predictable and conspicuous provider of civil amenities. Unmanned aerial vehicle and drone words are used interchangeably in this paper.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are employed in various cities because of their positioning comfort, affordable maintenance, hover and high mobility. Figure 1 describes the structure of this survey paper. The earliest purpose of the survey is to analyse several UAV civil applications and identify the hurdles (Mohamed et al. 2020Mohamed N, Al-Jaroodi J, Jawhar I, Idries A, Mohammed F (2020) Unmanned aerial vehicles applications in future smart cities. Technol Forecast Soc Change 153:119293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.05.004
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.... ). Significantly, this survey consists of:

• Unmanned aerial vehicle classification and specifications based on their types, endurance, weight, payload, components, sensors, and applications;

• Description of drone models and simulators used in civil applications;

• An outline of research trends, vital challenges and future insights in the UAV usage in the civil application domain are summarized (Giordan et al. 2020Giordan D, Adams MS, Aicardi I, Alicandro M, Allasia P, Baldo M, De Berardinis P, Dominici D, Godone D, Hobbs P, et al. (2020) The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for engineering geology applications. Bull Eng Geol Environ 79:3437-3481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-01766-2
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-020-01766... ).

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE HARDWARE

Unmanned aerial vehicle classification

A UAV can be operated remotely by pilots or pre-programmed to operate without the assistance of humans. The technical characteristics of drones play a significant role in their categorization, such as technology used, level of autonomy, size, weight and energy resources. Unmanned aerial vehicles are often equipped with a variety of sensors, including radars, television cameras, global positioning system (GPS) satellite communications, image intensifiers and infrared imaging technology (Shakhatreh et al. 2019Shakhatreh H, Sawalmeh AH, Al-Fuqaha A, Zuochao D, Almaita E, Khalil I, Othman NS, Khreishah A, Guizani M (2019) Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs): A survey on civil applications and key research challenges. IEEE Access 7:48572-48634. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2909530
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2909... ). The primary feature used to keep the drone fly is the technology used. Drones are defined and differentiated based on flying mechanism and altitude, as shown in Fig. 2. The second prominent feature is the level of autonomy of the UAV, differ fully self-governing to and controlled entirely by a remote pilot.

Unmanned aerial vehicle categorization

As shown in Fig. 3, drones are also graded based on their size and weight. The size of UAVs can vary from insect to aeroplane size and range from hundreds of grams to kilograms in weight. Drone governance is carried out remotely by radio waves or autonomously by a predefined path (Arfaoui 2017Arfaoui A (2017) Unmanned aerial vehicle: Review of onboard sensors, application fields, open problems and research issues. Int J Image Processing 11(1):12-24.). For operational insight, a vehicle with a maximum take-off weight not exceeding 25 kg does not need a license, permit or insurance.

Drones are often characterized and differentiated based on their nano to mega applications. Large UAVs are mainly used for military applications (Vergouw et al. 2016Vergouw B, Nagel H, Bondt G, Custers B (2016) Drone technology: Types, payloads, applications, frequency spectrum issues and future developments. In: Custers B, editor. The future of drone use: Opportunities and threats from ethical and legal perspectives. Basingstoke: Springer. pp. 21-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-132-6_2
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-132-... ), whereas more modest and smaller drones are for everyday society. The various standard distribution systems used drone weight and were classified into five drones: nano, micro, mini, small and tactical (Mitka and Mouroutsos 2017Mitka E, Mouroutsos SG (2017) Classification of drones. Am J Eng Res 6(7):36-41.). Table 1 describes the properties of different types of drones, their weights, altitude range, flying mechanism and area that they can cover. The table also gives the information of example model, description and also applications. The payload field in the table gives how much weight that a drone is capable of carrying. Based on the application domain and the requirement the appropriate drone is selected (Singhal et al. 2018Singhal G, Bansod B, Mathew L (2018) Unmanned aerial vehicle classification, applications and challenges: A review. Preprints:2018110601. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0601.v1
https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811... ).

Unmanned aerial vehicle components

Variations of UAVs are commonly used in different areas, including hazardous materials control or operation. Quadcopters seem to be used for all recent advancements in the field of small autonomous drones. Mechanical simplicity is the key reason why they are famous for small drones. A quadrotor refers to the UAV house; it also involves two pairs of counter-rotating rotors and propellers mounted at the top of a square frame (Nijim and Mantrawadi 2016Nijim M, Mantrawadi N (2016) Drone classification and identification system by phenome analysis using data mining techniques. Paper presented 2016 IEEE Symposium on Technologies for Homeland Security (HST). IEEE; Waltham, Massachusetts, United States of America. https://doi.org/10.1109/THS.2016.7568949
https://doi.org/10.1109/THS.2016.7568949... ). Vertical take-off and landings similar to traditional helicopters are capable of being achieved. Due to user safety and protection, the quadcopter is intended to allow either indoor or outdoor flights as a fundamental study parameter. At the appropriate time, the criterion for meeting the scheme should be fast, reliable and robust. X-copter is one of the most responsive drone constructions. Based on the number of propellers used, “X” was replaced with quad-, hexa- and octa-. Table 2 gives the overview of the most acceptable components used in quadcopter mounted in a cascade form to guarantee the endurance and reliability of the process (Gupte et al. 2012Gupte S, Mohandas PIT, Conrad JM (2012) A survey of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles. Paper presented 2012 Proceedings of IEEE Southeastcon. IEEE; Orlando, Florida, United States of America. https://doi.org/10.1109/SECon.2012.6196930
https://doi.org/10.1109/SECon.2012.61969... ). The table also gives the component description. Drones are used to track the fitness of equipment, patrolling, transport, deliveries located in remote areas or at significantly high altitudes. They are used to collect the soil in areas where humans cannot live. Image recognition and mobile 3D mapping, where the UAV exerts photos or explores specific areas, are applied to the usage of the drones to create an implied model of the location chosen (Deepak and Singh 2016Deepak BBVL, Singh P (2016) A survey on design and development of an unmanned aerial vehicle (quadcopter). Int J Intell Unmanned Syst 4(2):70-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIUS-10-2015-0012
https://doi.org/10.1108/IJIUS-10-2015-00... ).

Sensors

A sensor is a system that differentiates changes in electrical, physical or other supplies and, thus, produces an output as an affirmation of the change in quantity (Ostojic et al. 2015Ostojic G, Stankovski S, Tejic B, Đukić N, Tegeltija S (2015) Design, control and application of quadcopter. Int J Ind Eng Manag 6(1):43-48.). Figure 4 shows the basic sensors used in many UAVs.

Besides this knowledge, UAVs can manage their situations, ascertain how quick they are, and evade barriers (Nagai et al. 2012Nagai M, Witayangkurn A, Honda K, Shibasaki R (2012) UAV-based sensor web monitoring system. Int J Navig Obs 2012:858792. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/858792
https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/858792... ). Here are some more sensors that are used in complex UAVs and their work.

• Gyroscope: Gyroscopes are a comprehensive tool used for measuring or maintaining orientation. This technology is massively operated to keep a steady hover. Gyroscope is so vital to the regular control of a UAV.

• Barometer: This sensor helps to regulate air pressure. It is seen in almost all UAVs and is frequently used to aid in sustain a stable altitude. Self-governing UAV missions with variations in height are necessary, also earn use of the citations from the onboard weatherglass. Although GPS technology can further be utilized to plot the elevation of a UAV, barometers provide much added accurate data and render quicker feedback, as long as they have precisely calibrated.

• Accelerometer: The accelerometer of a UAV goes collectively among its gyroscope to plot variations in its movement and location. Wherever the gyroscope practices understand rotational movements, an accelerometer does healthier in reading linear motion on any axis. Accelerometers, in sequence including GPS technology, allow the smartphone or fitness equipment to trace the route when running or travelling.

• Global positioning system: Depending upon the position of the satellite authorization, the time it needs for the UAVs GPS module to allow the call will vary. The accuracy of the site will depend on the power of the signal that the UAVs GPS module also bears the number of satellites inside its reach.

• Magnetometer: A magnetometer holds power and control of a magnetic field, so as the name. A UAV can eternally conclude the area of the magnetic north and modify its trajectory, respectively.

• Range finder: A rangefinder is to discover how far apart from the ground the UAV is. The standard rangefinders utilize sonar technology. By drawing sound waves from the land region, a sonar rangefinder can conclude the height of the UAV.

• Inertial measurement unit (IMU): An IMU is imprecisely a separate sensor of the drone, but is instead an association of several sensors. An IMU of the drone includes accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, a specific set of which acts in all three axes of action.

• Current sensors: In drones, power dissipation and performance are particularly important. Using current sensors, power loss may be monitored and regulated to a certain extent. Batteries throughout the house can be charged reliably, and faults in devices or other parts of the system can be identified and corrected (Sørensen et al. 2017Sørensen LY, Jacobsen LT, Hansen JP (2017) Low cost and flexible UAV deployment of sensors. Sensors 17(1):154. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010154
  https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010154... ).

• Speed and distance sensors: Certain sensors are used to identify the drone speed or measure the distance within the UAV and another article without actual physical contact with the item.

• Infrared and thermal sensors: For example, search and rescue, surveillance, leak detection, pipeline inspection and agricultural and forest health are all possible uses of infrared sensors depending on the accuracy of the sensor.

• Image sensors: By converting the volatile attenuation of light waves into electrical signals, an image sensor can identify and transfer information about whatever makes an image. As an example, it can be used to make multispectral photographs, thermography, X-ray sensors, as well as other extremely sensitive arrays for space observations.

• Chemical sensors: For example, it can be attached to a drone and offer information on the material balance of any situation.

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE MODELS AND DRONE SIMULATOR

Broadly used UAV models

Numerous drone models are already in use, as they are developing fast. In a short period, many new models are formed for the developing demand in drone technology. Therefore, models which are extensively available for civil applications are described here.

• DelFly Explorer: DelFly Explorer is the main flapping-wing MAV capable of solo flight (Croon et al. 2012Croon GCHE, Groen MA, Wagter C, Remes B, Ruijsink R, van Oudheusden BW (2012) Design, aerodynamics and autonomy of the DelFly. Bioinspir Biomim 7:025003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3182/7/2/025003
  https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3182/7/2/02... ). Onboard stereo vision is used to avoid impediments. In addition, it is equipped with a barometer to help it maintain its height. DelFly Explorer can fly for up to 9 min without external control thanks to a collection of sensors. Testing has proven successful in numerous indoor areas, including laboratories and lecture halls, as well as outdoor spaces. As a result of the battery, the current record is limited to 9 min.

• Hubsan X4 drone: Hubsan X4 drone was developed by a Chinese company named Hubsan (2015)Hubsan (2015) The Hubsan X4 Pro: Real Time FPV. Shenzhen: Hubsan. [accessed Oct 28 2021]. https://www.drones.nl/media/files/drones/1456534783-hubsan-x4-pro-user-manual.pdf
  https://www.drones.nl/media/files/drones... . Despite its modest size and weight (28 g without the battery), this drone is incredibly fast and offers a high degree of manoeuvrability. It is not as important as the palm of a human hand, but it is still a lot of fun. It has a maximum flight time of 9 min when completely charged. A built-in camera is included in some X4 drone versions for taking photos and recording video. It is designed largely for leisure goals.

• Parrot AR drone: The Parrot AR is a drone primarily manufactured for entertaining commitments. This drone can fly for about 12–18 min when fully charged. The weight of the parrot AR drone is approximately 400 g. Drones can go up to 18 km•h^–1 and have a range of roughly 50 m. This drone is equipped with Bluetooth, wi-fi, two cameras, and GPS instructions to hover over a preprogrammed course. Some applications of Parrot AR drone are film, photography and gaming, emphasizing recreation more clearly. The customer can set a new assignment and settings, such as maintaining a particular altitude, before it automatically leads out the specified charge. This Parrot AR drone is one of DJI’s most popularly used recreational drone models (Cheema et al. 2016Cheema P, Luo S, Gibbens P (2016) Development of a control and vision interface for an AR.Drone. Paper presented 2016 8th International Conference on Computer and Automation Engineering (ICCAE 2016). MATEC Web of Conferences; Sydney, Australia. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20165607002
  https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201656... ).

• Phantom: The DJI Phantom UAV is a four-rotor multirotor UAV primarily designed for entertainment purposes. A smartphone or a wi-fi controller with a camera may control the DJI Phantom UAV. The smartphone can also move and capture pictures or record video with the drone camera. The DJI Phantom has a top speed of 54 km•h^–1 and a battery life of about 25 min. The user can simply preprogram the flight height and waypoints, and the UAV will automatically take off, land, document, and respond (Hovhannisyan et al. 2018Hovhannisyan T, Efendyan, Vardanyan MV (2018) Creation of a digital model of fields with application of DJI phantom 3 drone and the opportunities of its utilization in agriculture. Ann Agrar Sci 16(2):177-180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aasci.2018.03.006
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aasci.2018.03.... ; Sagitov and Gerasimov 2017Sagitov A, Gerasimov Y (2017) Towards DJI Phantom 4 realistic simulation with gimbal and RC controller in ROS/Gazebo environment. Paper presented 2017 10th International Conference on Developments in eSystems Engineering (DeSE). IEEE; Paris, France. https://doi.org/10.1109/DeSE.2017.40
  https://doi.org/10.1109/DeSE.2017.40... ).

• Raven: In 2002, fixed-wing UAV Raven was developed. The essential idea of the Raven is inspection, and it can be controlled preprogrammed for self-governing operation. The Raven weighs 2 kg, has a diameter of 1.4 m, and has a range of 10 km. It can stay operational for 60–90 min. It is primarily comprised of an optic and an infrared camera. Heaving the Raven into the air propels it forward. It arrives by gliding towards a preprogrammed docking point and can compensate for the impact by falling apart as it hits the ground (Bratanov et al. 2017Bratanov D, Mejias L, Ford JJ (2017) A vision-based sense-and-avoid system tested on a ScanEagle UAV. Paper presented 2017 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS). IEEE; Miami, Florida, United States of America. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2017.7991302
  https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUAS.2017.79913... ; O’Young and Hubbard 2007O’Young S, Hubbard P (2007) RAVEN: A maritime surveillance project using small UAV. Paper presented 2007 IEEE Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (EFTA 2007). IEEE; Patras, Greece. https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTA.2007.4416878
  https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTA.2007.441687... ).

Drone simulator

A UAV simulator is what it seems like: it is a software program developed to reproduce the action of operating a drone by using an actual UAV controller compared to the cooperative device (Oubbati et al. 2020Oubbati O, Atiquzzaman M, Ahanger T, Ibrahim A (2020) Softwarization of UAV networks: A survey of applications and future trends. IEEE Access 8:98073-98125. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2994494
https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.2994... ). Most UAV simulators can work on either a computer or a Mac. Some drone flight simulators allow to customize them for specific flying scenarios. Due to the complicated environment, including various variables, a simulation model of the UAV system serves to design more reliable and achieve a drone fleet (Fernando et al. 2013Fernando ECTE, Silva ATA, Zoysa MDC, Dilshan KADC, Munasinghe SR (2013) Modelling, simulation and implementation of a quadrotor UAV. Paper presented 2013 IEEE 8th International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems. IEEE; Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIInfS.2013.6731982
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICIInfS.2013.673... ). The network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined network (SDN) are two prominent technologies for managing and improving UAV assistance in future mobile networks. Unmanned aerial vehicle system simulation enhances resolution-making in these sectors (La et al. 2017La WG, Park S, Kim H (2017) D-MUNS: Distributed multiple UAVs’ network simulator. Paper presented 2017 Ninth International Conference on Ubiquitous and Future Networks (ICUFN). IEEE; Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUFN.2017.7993738
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICUFN.2017.79937... ). The best simulators used in many civil applications are tabulated in Table 3.

CIVIL APPLICATIONS

Unmanned aerial vehicles can be practised in various civilian uses due to their low preservation cost, deployment efficiency, high mobility and ability to hover (Kardasz et al. 2016Kardasz P, Doskocz J, Hejduk M, Wiejkut P, Zarzycki H (2016) Drones and possibilities of their using. Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering 6(3):233. https://doi.org/10.4172/2165-784x.1000233.
https://doi.org/10.4172/2165-784x.100023... ). Several civil applications are listed here and also summarized in Fig. 5.

• Disaster management: assessing the damage, locating victims, care of public safety, search and rescue actions and delivering aids (Hayat et al. 2016Hayat S, Yanmaz E, Muzaffar R (2016) Survey on unmanned aerial vehicle networks for civil applications: A communications viewpoint. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 18(4):2624-2661. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2016.2560343
  https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2016.25603... ).

• Construction and infrastructure inspection: creating accurate 2D and 3D data, maps and models, conducting surveys before, during and after construction, monitoring gas, oil and water pipelines (Greenwood et al. 2019Greenwood WW, Lynch JP, Zekkos D (2019) Applications of UAVs in civil infrastructure. Journal of Infrastructure Systems 25(2):04019002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-555X.0000464
  https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)IS.1943-55... ).

• Agriculture and remote sensing: planting crops, disease finding, monitoring, irrigation, water quantity nursing, yield approximations, deficiency monitoring (Norasma et al. 2019Norasma CYN, Fadzilah MA, Roslin NA, Zanariah ZWN, Tarmidi Z, Candra FS (2019) Unmanned aerial vehicle applications in agriculture. IOP Conf Ser: Mater Sci Eng 506:012063. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/506/1/012063
  https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/506/1/... ).

• Healthcare: delivering medical services in remote areas (Wulfovich et al. 2018Wulfovich S, Rivas H, Matabuena P (2018) Drones in healthcare. In: Rivas H, Wac K, editors. Digital health. Basingstoke: Springer. pp. 159-168. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61446-5_11
  https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61446-... ).

• Waste management: identifying garbage sites (Leizer 2018Leizer GKK (2018) Possible areas of application of drones in waste management during rail accidents and disasters. Interdiscip. Descr Complex Syst 16(3–A):360-368. https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.16.3.8
  https://doi.org/10.7906/indecs.16.3.8... ).

• Utility inspecting: telecommunication towers, tracking oil spills (Johnsen et al. 2020Johnsen SO, Bakken T, Transeth AA, Holmstrøm S, Merz M, Grøtli EI, Jacobsen SR, Storvold R (2020) Safety and security of drones in the oil and gas industry. Paper presented The 30th European Safety and Reliability Conference, 15th Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management Conference. Esrel; Psam; Venice, Italy. https://doi.org/10.3850/978-981-14-8593-0_3924-cd
  https://doi.org/10.3850/978-981-14-8593-... ).

• Urban planning: providing instant mapping and ready to use data for planning (Noor et al. 2018Noor NM, Abdullah A, Hashim M (2018) Remote sensing UAV/drones and its applications for urban areas: A review. IOP Conf Ser: Earth Environ Sci 169:012003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/169/1/012003
  https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/169/1/... ).

• Wildlife conservation: monitoring the number of animals, species, collecting samples for conservationists to track porches (Ivosevic et al. 2015Ivosevic B, Han Y-G, Cho Y, Kwon O (2015) The use of conservation drones in ecology and wildlife research. J Ecol Environ 38(1):113-118. https://doi.org/10.5141/ecoenv.2015.012
  https://doi.org/10.5141/ecoenv.2015.012... ).

• Geographic mapping: acquiring high-resolution data, downloading imagery in challenging to reach locations like coastlines (Yavaşlı 2020Yavaşlı DD (2020) Drone applications in geography: Game of drones. In Balcioğullari A, Şahin MC, editors. Current Studies in Social Sciences II. Ankara: AYBAK. p.117-131.).

• Weather forecasting: accessing weather trends to understand imminent dangers (Balaji et al. 2018Balaji B, Chennupati SK, Chilakalapudi SRK, Katuri R, Mareedu K (2018) Design of UAV (drone) for crop, weather monitoring and for spraying fertilizers and pesticides. Int J Res Trends Innov 3(3):42-47.).

• Mining: measuring minerals, surveying operations (Park and Choi 2020Park S, Choi Y (2020) Applications of unmanned aerial vehicles in mining from exploration to reclamation: A review. Minerals 10(8):663. https://doi.org/10.3390/min10080663
  https://doi.org/10.3390/min10080663... ).

• Law enforcement: monitoring large crowds, tracking illegal activities (Stelmack 2015Stelmack K (2015) Weaponized police drones and their effect on police use of force. Pittsburgh J Technol Law Policy 15(2):276-292. https://doi.org/10.5195/TLP.2015.172
  https://doi.org/10.5195/TLP.2015.172... ).

• Real-time monitoring of road traffic flow: field provision sides, rescue teams, traffic police, road inspectors, hovering roadside unit and hovering dynamic traffic signals (Elloumi et al. 2018Elloumi M, Dhaou R, Escrig B, Idoudi H, Saidane LA (2018) Monitoring road traffic with a UAV-based system. Paper presented 2018 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC). IEEE; Barcelona, Spain. https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2018.8377077
  https://doi.org/10.1109/WCNC.2018.837707... ).

• Commercial photography: images and videos are both popular outcomes from commercial drone jobs. These could be for wedding and commercial photography/videography, real estate marketing photography, or even filming with big-budget motion pictures.

Unmanned aerial vehicles are declaring to be highly propitious in places where a person cannot move or is incapable of performing in an exceedingly reasonable and sufficient practice. Improving work performance and potency, minimizing workload and merchandise cost, refining service and customer relations, increasing precision, and fixing security problems on a broad scale is the first UAV uses that give industry globally. The rapid mobility of UAVs, frequent packet losses and weak connectivity between UAVs are addressed to affect data delivery reliability (Oubbati et al. 2019Oubbati OS, Mozaffari M, Chaib N, Lorenz P, Atiquzzaman M, Jamalipour (2019) ECaD: Energy-efficient routing in flying ad hoc networks. Int J Commun Syst 32(18):e4156. https://doi.org/10.1002/dac.4156
https://doi.org/10.1002/dac.4156... ). The drones maintain the flexibility to achieve the significant isolated areas with little to no human resources required and wish the smallest amount of energy, effort, and time. It is one of the most important goals of being embraced worldwide, especially by these four sectors: disaster management, precision agriculture, construction and infrastructure inspection and healthcare, as shown in Fig. 6. The detailed description of the four sectors is presented below.

Disaster management

A disaster is an event caused by a natural or man-made hazard that occurs over a short or extended period of time. It results in significant physical harm or destruction, as well as mortality or a big alteration in the environment. The disaster management team supports search and rescue operations, such as public safety, locating victims, assessing damage, and delivering aids (Oubbati et al. 2020Oubbati OS, Atiquzzaman M, Lorenz P, Baz A, Alhakami H (2020) SEARCH: An SDN-enabled approach for vehicle path-planning. IEEE Trans Veh Technol 69(12):14523-14536. https://doi.org/10.1109/TVT.2020.3043306
https://doi.org/10.1109/TVT.2020.3043306... ). Drones can step in for relief workers and manned vehicles in situations when they are needed. Drones can be easily used to access hard to reach areas. Drones are used to enable communication coverage during natural or man-made disasters such as floods or terrorist attacks, as well as essential infrastructure like water and electrical utilities (Tanzi et al. 2016Tanzi TJ, Chandra M, Isnard J, Camara D, Sebastien O, Harivelo F (2016) Towards “drone-born” disaster management. ISPRS Ann Photogramm Remote Sens Spatial Inf Sci III-8:180-181. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-III-8-181-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-III... ). Drones provide timely disaster warnings as well as assistance in restoring public communication networks that have been interrupted. It can also supply medical aids to classified inaccessible areas and search missing persons/animals in disastrous situations like poisonous gas leakage, forest fires, and avalanches (Restas 2015Restas A. (2015) Drone applications for supporting disaster management. World J Eng Technol 3(3C):316-321. https://doi.org/10.4236/wjet.2015.33C047
https://doi.org/10.4236/wjet.2015.33C047... ). These are the main areas where drones help to improve search and rescue missions.

• Use of mapping and imaging technology to provide quick situational awareness;

• Help rescuers locate hot spots and examine property damage;

• Capture imagery for communications and news coverage;

• Search for survivors;

• Assess utility and infrastructure damage;

• Create before/after maps of the affected region (Erdelj and Natalizio 2016Erdelj M, Natalizio E (2016) UAV-assisted disaster management: Applications and open issues. Paper presented 2016 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC). IEEE; Kauai, Hawaii, United States of America. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCNC.2016.7440563
  https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCNC.2016.74405... ).

Unmanned aerial vehicles have been applied in a wide variety of disaster management applications, but the following are the most common (Chowdhury et al. 2017Chowdhury S, Emelogu A, Marufuzzaman M, Nurre SG, Bian L (2017) Drones for disaster response and relief operations: A continuous approximation model. Int J Prod Econ 188:167-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.03.024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.03.0... ):

• Predisaster planning: refers to incidents linked to surveying that occur prior to the calamity.

• Evaluation of disasters: provide real time situational awareness of the event and complete logistic damage studies.

• Disaster response and recovery: Search And Rescue (SAR) missions, building the communications backbone, and insurance-related field surveys are just a few examples.

Agriculture

The rapid improvement and growth of UAVs as a remote sensing platform, as well as advances in device downsizing and data systems, have resulted in increased adoption of this technology in metropolitan areas and remote sensing social networks. Drones can be used to collect data from ground sensors and distribute it to ground base stations. Drones with sensors can be used to create an aerial sensor network for disaster management and environmental monitoring (Tsouros et al. 2019Tsouros DC, Bibi S, Sarigiannidis PG (2019) A review on UAV-based applications for precision agriculture. Information 10(11):349. https://doi.org/10.3390/info10110349
https://doi.org/10.3390/info10110349... ). Drones, remote sensing applications from tree species, water quality monitoring, disease detection, crop monitoring, yield predictions, and drought monitoring are just few of the data sources. Some of the applications of drones in agriculture are:

• Crop monitoring: The crop fields are vast and challenging to monitor volatile weather conditions, increasing the field risk and labour costs. Unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with RGB or multispectral cameras helps to eliminate these challenges (Hassan-Esfahani et al. 2015Hassan-Esfahani L, Torres-Rua A, Jensen A, McKee M (2015) Assessment of surface soil moisture using high-resolution multi-spectral imagery and artificial neural networks. Remote Sens 7(3):2627-2646. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70302627
  https://doi.org/10.3390/rs70302627... ).

• Precision agriculture: Vegetation that focuses on crop diseases, nutrient deficiencies, and pest infestation reduces productivity. Crop data is collected by UAVs and processed with AI techniques to address these challenges (Radoglou-Grammatikis et al. 2020Radoglou-Grammatikis P, Sarigiannidis P, Lagkas T, Moscholios I (2020) A compilation of UAV applications for precision agriculture. Comput Netw 172:107148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.107148
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comnet.2020.10... ).

• Irrigation management: UAVs assist in obtaining critical irrigation data at any time and at a low cost (Kim et al. 2019Kim D, Son Y, Park J, Kim T, Jeon J (2019) Evaluation of calibration method for field application of UAV-based soil water content prediction equation. Adv Civ Eng 2019: 2486216. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2486216
  https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/2486216... ).

• Aerial mustering: Aerial stock mustering occurs when a UAV is used to locate, direct, and concentrate livestock while flying below 500 ft above ground level. It is utilised to supplement the employment of horses and motorcycles in traditional mustering tactics (Katke 2019Katke K (2019) Precision agriculture adoption: Challenges of Indian agriculture. Int J Res Anal Rev 6(1).). Mustering operations are defined as activities linked to the aerial monitoring and control of livestock that is handled by helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft and include: animal culling, aerial stock mustering and aerial stock spotting (Barbedo et al. 2020Barbedo JGA, Koenigkan LV, Santos PM, Ribeiro ARB (2020) Counting cattle in UAV images: Dealing with clustered animals and animal/background contrast changes. Sensors 20(7):2126. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072126
  https://doi.org/10.3390/s20072126... ).

• Artificial pollination: The decrease in the honeybee population has gained immense concern worldwide. Hence, UAVs act as pollinators to transport pollen from flowers using hair coated with gel (Potts et al. 2018Potts SG, Neumann P, Vaissière B, Vereecken N (2018) Robotic bees for crop pollination: Why drones cannot replace biodiversity. Sci Total Environ 642:665-667. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.06.114
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018... ).

Construction and infrastructure inspection

Unmanned aerial vehicles used in real-time monitoring development project sites and examining high voltage of power synchronized lines. Drones are used to recognize the buildings near the power lines and the location of trees (McCabe et al. 2017McCabe BY, Hamledari H, Shahi A, Zangeneh P, Rezazadeh Azar E (2017) Roles, benefits, and challenges of using UAVs for indoor smart construction applications. ASCE International Workshop on Computing in Civil Engineering 2017. Seattle, Washington, United States of America. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480830.043
https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480830.04... ). Small UAVs are deployed, observe the facilities, infrastructure, including water, gas, oil pipelines. The gas controller unit is deployed in UAVs to identify gas, air leaks and content. Drone inspection applications throughout the construction cycle (Anwar et al. 2018Anwar N, Najam FA, Izhar MA (2018) Construction monitoring and reporting using drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Paper presented The Tenth International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-10). AIT; Colombo, Sri Lanka.) are mentioned below:

• Monitoring project progress: Project maps are built using drone data for regular monitoring and planning, avoiding delays and additional expenses. Progress monitoring helps the projects to move according to their plan with no deviations. Construction/deconstruction sequences, crane positions, perimeter security, and many other aspects are evident due to UAV-based progress monitoring (Shahmoradi et al. 2020Shahmoradi J, Talebi E, Roghanchi P, Hassanalian M (2020) A comprehensive review of applications of drone technology in the mining industry. Drones 4(3):34. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones4030034
  https://doi.org/10.3390/drones4030034... ).

• Construction site mapping: The creation of drone maps has become more straightforward, inexpensive and results in less intense civil engineering work than older methods. Drones may now easily access any location using topographic surveys to create visual representations for evacuations, stockpile measurements, and correct transport prices. For real-time computer mapping of information, Pix 4D software is used (Getsov et al. 2017Getsov P, Wang B, Zafirov D, Sotirov G, Nachev S, Yanev R, Gramatikov P, Atanassov V, Lukarski H, Zabunov S (2017) An unmanned aerial surveillance system in urban environments. Aerospace Research in Bulgaria 29:94-110.).

• Volumetric measurement: To keep records of the onsite raw materials used during construction to improve efficiency and reduce stock waste. In stockpiles volume estimates, 99% accuracy is achieved by incorporating state-of-the-art technology, such as machine learning. Volumetric measurements are high speed, precise, and cost-effective using Equinox drones (Fan and Saadeghvaziri 2019Fan J, Saadeghvaziri MA (2019) Applications of drones in infrastructures: Challenges and opportunities. Int J Mech Mechatron Eng 13(10):649-655 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3566281
  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3566281... ).

• Buildings surveillance: Inspections of buildings can be dangerous and challenging for humans to carry out independently. Building UAV surveillance helps lower personal safety risks and boosts productivity by recording vast and essential data. Drone surveillance or aerial surveillance helps in finding potentially risky scenarios for better decisions more efficiently. Drones equipped with thermal sensors are popular amongst building surveillance projects to evaluate roofs for faults without actually going there.

Health care

Drones have the potential to collect real-time data and deliver payloads at a low cost, and they have sped up the development of various industrial, commercial, and recreational applications. Telecommunication drones are used for diagnosis and treatment, perioperative evaluation, and telemetering in remote locations (Rosser Junior et al. 2018Rosser Junior JC, Vignesh V, Terwilliger BA, Parker BC (2018) Surgical and medical applications of drones: A comprehensive review. JSLS-J Soc Laparoend 22(3):e2018.00018. https://doi.org/10.4293/JSLS.2018.00018
https://doi.org/10.4293/JSLS.2018.00018... ). Microbiological and laboratory samples, drugs, vaccines, emergency medical supplies, and patient transportation can all be delivered using drones. Drones have a variety of practical applications that have much potential and are listed below:

• Emergency supplies or medications on board: EpiPens, poison antidotes, and oxygen masks are just a few types of life-saving kit (Thiels et al. 2015Thiels CA, Aho JM, Zietlow SP, Jenkins DH (2015) Use of unmanned aerial vehicles for medical product transport. Air Med J 34(2):104-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amj.2014.10.011
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amj.2014.10.01... ).

• Blood and tissue sample collection: Drones may be able to provide goods and services while also allowing for speedier return transit to labs that are adequately prepared, eliminating human work and time (Konert et al. 2019Konert A, Smereka J, Szarpak Ł (2019) The use of drones in emergency medicine: Practical and legal aspects. Emerg Med Int 2019:3589792. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3589792
  https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3589792... ).

• Performing search and rescue missions: People that have gone missing or been injured can be rescued at sea, in the mountains, in the desert, or in the bush (Fotouhi et al. 2019Fotouhi A, Qiang H, Ding M, Hassan M, Giordano LG, Garcia-Rodriguez A, Yuan J (2019) Survey on UAV cellular communications: Practical aspects, standardization advancements, regulation, and security challenges. IEEE Commun Surv Tutor 21(4):3417-3442. https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2019.2906228
  https://doi.org/10.1109/COMST.2019.29062... ).

• Accessibility to far-flung patients: People are typically found in situations where the infrastructure for efficient emergency or continuity of care is lacking. Drones are being used to provide telemedicine, vaccinations, prescription drugs, and medical supplies to people at home.

• Integration of cloud and internet of things (IoT): It presents a cost-effective way to connect heterogeneous devices and address rising data demands in healthcare applications, including seamless application deployment and rendering service (Malleswari and Vadivu 2019Malleswari TYJN, Vadivu G (2019) Adaptive deduplication of virtual machine images using AKKA stream to accelerate live migration process in cloud environment. J Cloud Comp 8:3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13677-019-0125-z
  https://doi.org/10.1186/s13677-019-0125-... ).

DISCUSSION

This section summarizes recent applications in which UAVs with AI for civil purposes are presented. The following Tables 4–7 summarize types of sensors, recent trends and critical challenges, and how they are addressed using UAVs in civil applications (Maghazei and Netland 2020Maghazei O, Netland T (2020) Drones in manufacturing: Exploring opportunities for research and practice. J Manuf Technol Manag 31(6):1237-1259. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-03-2019-0099
https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-03-2019-009... ).

CONCLUSION

Unmanned aerial vehicles are now being built with highly versatile technology, continually developing creative ways to provide more outstanding service. This paper provides a detailed systematic literature analysis of the context classification, UAVs specification, and applications to the respective models. The study also presents various aspects of drones such as technological requirements, drone models, parts, possible payloads and sensors. The use of UAVs is rapidly increasing in substantial civil application domains. Compared to other studies, this paper comprehensively analyses existing literature and UAV uses that accurately represented their particular civil applications while further analysing the research trends, key challenges, and potential perspectives for each category. This analysis covers the different types of drone models currently being used, their configuration and applications, and the imminent technical enhancement of UAV technology. Unmanned aerial vehicles are widely employed in precision agriculture for crop management and tracking, weed detection, irrigation scheduling, disease detection, pesticide spraying, and field sensor data collection. Artificial intelligent pollinators are a wonder in precision agriculture. In the future, UAVs will play a vital role in precision agriculture by incorporating image processing techniques such as georeferencing, mosaicking, classification algorithms, and collecting high-resolution images. The key research challenges in precision agriculture raise the opportunities and further pave the way for researchers to develop future drone applications.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Not applicable.

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