Advances of UAVs toward Future Transportation: The State-of-the-Art, Challenges, and Opportunities

Anunay Gupta,Evan Scully,Tanzina Afrin,Nita Yodo

doi:10.3390/futuretransp1020019

Anunay Gupta, Evan Scully + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/futuretransp1020019

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Journal: Future Transportation	Publication Date: Sep 1, 2021
Citations: 66	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: North Dakota State University

Abstract

The adoption of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in numerous sectors is projected to grow exponentially in the future as technology advances and regulation evolves. One of the promising applications of UAVs is in transportation systems. As the current transportation system is moving towards Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), UAVs will play a significant role in the functioning of ITS. This paper presents a survey on the recent advances of UAVs and their roles in current and future transportation systems. Moreover, the emerging technologies of UAVs in the transportation section and the current research areas are summarized. From the discussion, the challenges and opportunities of integrating UAVs towards future ITS are highlighted. In addition, some of the potential research areas involving UAVs in future ITS are also identified. This study aims to lay a foundation for the development of future intelligent and resilient transportation systems.

Highlights

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an aerial vehicle that does not have a human operator on board
Due to their size, which is often smaller than manned-aerial vehicles, UAVs are affected by the weather, and their maneuverability remains a challenge in bad weather conditions
This paper summarized the recent advances of the research on UAVs and their roles in the current and future transportation systems

Summary

Introduction

Referred to as a ‘drone,’ a UAV can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely. Civilian UAVs are usually considered to be recoverable drones [4]. Due to their unmanned capability, UAVs tend to offer a safer operating environment when compared to manned-aerial vehicles if appropriately regulated. One major drawback is that UAVs have a relatively short flight, as compared to regular aircraft. Due to their size, which is often smaller than manned-aerial vehicles, UAVs are affected by the weather, and their maneuverability remains a challenge in bad weather conditions.

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