Internet of Things (IoT) and Agricultural Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in smart farming: A comprehensive review

Internet of Things (IoT) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are two hot technologies utilized in cultivation fields, which transform traditional farming practices into a new era of precision agriculture. In this paper, we perform a survey of the last research on IoT and UAV technology applied in agriculture. We describe the main principles of IoT technology, including intelligent sensors, IoT sensor types, networks and protocols used in agriculture, as well as IoT applications and solutions in smart farming. Moreover, we present the role of UAV technology in smart agriculture, by analyzing the applications of UAVs in various scenarios, including irrigation, fertilization, use of pesticides, weed management, plant growth monitoring, crop disease management, and field-level phenotyping. Furthermore, the utilization of UAV systems in complex agricultural environments is also analyzed. Our conclusion is that IoT and UAV are two of the most important technologies that transform traditional cultivation practices into a new perspective of intelligence in precision agriculture.