Industrial Applications of UAV
GUO Qinghua, HU Tianyu, LIU Jin, JIN Shichao, XIAO Qing, YANG Guijun, GAO Xianlian, XU Qiang, XIE Pinhua, PENG Chigang, YAN Li
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a flexible and efficient platform to accurately obtain high-resolution and multi-source remote sensing data in low altitude airspace. It can provide important information for industrial applications and management decisions. With the arrival of the big-data era, both the hardware and software for acquiring and processing UAV remote sensing data stepped into a fast lane. The enormous amount of data has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges for UAV remote sensing and industrial applications. In this article, we introduced the history and advances in UAV remote sensing hardware development. The UAVs mounted with lightweight, high-precision, standardized, and integrated sensors would be the future direction of UAV remote sensing hardware development. Then, we summarized the current status of applications in agriculture, forestry and prataculture, surveying, geological hazard monitoring and disaster management, electricity sector, and atmospheric monitoring using UAV remote sensing. The integrated UAV remote sensing platforms equipped with multi-sensors are one of the keys for such applications. Finally, we discussed the intelligent UAV hardware, network operation potential, massive data processing capability, automatic information extraction technique, and future directions in UAV remote sensing. The popularization and standardization of UAV remote sensing application in various industries will largely improve and accelerate national and regional social and economic development.