Application Innovations and Engineering Practices of Drone Technology in Geological Exploration

This study examines how drone technology is revolutionizing geological surveying. While traditional approaches struggle with efficiency and accuracy limitations, drones leverage breakthroughs in multi-sensor integration, autonomous navigation, and real-time data processing to establish an integrated air-ground-cloud collaborative framework, significantly enhancing survey capabilities. Their transformative applications span dynamic landslide monitoring, AI-driven mineral exploration for hidden deposits, 3D geological mapping, and multidimensional environmental diagnostics. The research also identifies challenges such as high-altitude operations, big data interpretation bottlenecks, and regulatory constraints, proposing solutions like power system optimization, edge computing integration, and standardized protocols to accelerate the industry's shift toward intelligent, data-centric methodologies. These insights offer critical guidance for modernizing geological exploration technologies.