Drones in Precision Agriculture: A Comprehensive Review of Applications, Technologies, and Challenges
Bibliographic record
Abstract
In the face of growing challenges in modern agriculture, such as climate change, sustainable resource management, and food security, drones are emerging as essential tools for transforming precision agriculture. This systematic review, based on an in-depth analysis of recent scientific literature (2020–2024), provides a comprehensive synthesis of current drone applications in the agricultural sector, primarily focusing on studies from this period while including a few notable exceptions of particular interest. Our study examines in detail the technological advancements in drone systems, including innovative aerial platforms, cutting-edge multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, and advanced navigation and communication systems. We analyze diagnostic applications, such as crop monitoring and multispectral mapping, as well as interventional applications like precision spraying and drone-assisted seeding. The integration of artificial intelligence and IoTs in analyzing drone-collected data is highlighted, demonstrating significant improvements in early disease detection, yield estimation, and irrigation management. Specific case studies illustrate the effectiveness of drones in various crops, from viticulture to cereal cultivation. Despite these advancements, we identify several obstacles to widespread drone adoption, including regulatory, technological, and socio-economic challenges. This study particularly emphasizes the need to harmonize regulations on beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights and improve economic accessibility for small-scale farmers. This review also identifies key opportunities for future research, including the use of drone swarms, improved energy autonomy, and the development of more sophisticated decision-support systems integrating drone data. In conclusion, we underscore the transformative potential of drones as a key technology for more sustainable, productive, and resilient agriculture in the face of global challenges in the 21st century, while highlighting the need for an integrated approach combining technological innovation, adapted policies, and farmer training.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.004 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".