Review: unmanned aerial vehicles and artificial intelligence in precision agriculture

To meet the needs of sustainable intensification in crop and animal production, farmers use a set of technologies which are referred to as Agriculture 4.0 to 5.0 or digital agriculture. Differences compared to traditional precision farming techniques are in extensive use of UAV, smart sensors implemented in machines, crops, animals and in the soil, cloud computing, IoT, together with extensive use of AI for data analyses. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), also called drones, have become an essential tool in digital agriculture. UAVs have witnessed remarkable development in the past decades and so in the recent years, the topic of agricultural UAVs has gained the attention of many farmers. The submitted paper provides a review on recent scientific literature dedicated to the utilization of agricultural UAVs. The utilization areas are reviewed in monitoring (remote sensing), interventional applications of various inputs, and other areas of possible utilization. The novelty of this review highlights the importance of the integration of UAVs with artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine-learning algorithms are developing to analyse UAV-collected data, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency. Machine learning models in combination with artificial intelligence are capable of yield prediction and crop management, effecting future decision-making processes. Several key opportunities can be identified for future research, including the development of more sophisticated decision-making processes and machine learning methods based on artificial intelligence, the automation of agricultural crop production, improved UAV autonomy, and the potential use of UAV swarms in different field operations.