The Rise of Drones in Internet of Things: A Survey on the Evolution, Prospects and Challenges of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The recent years have seen a rise in the incorporation and integration of new smart connected devices and platforms such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to the ubiquitous network of Internet of Things (IoT). UAVs not only offer new means of delivering value-added IoT services through a wide range of applications ranging from monitoring and surveillance to on-demand last-mile delivery and people transport, but they also promise a pragmatic solution to the limitations of fixed terrestrial IoT infrastructure. Owning to their potential, UAVs are expected to soon be an integral part of our cities, dominating the shared low-altitude airspace. This introduces new research challenges in privacy, security and most notably in the safe management of UAVs’ operation under high traffic demands. To this end, this work presents a holistic study on the current state-of-the-art of UAVs and low-altitude airspace traffic management. This work additionally explores the technical standardisation landscape and highlights synergies between scientific research and standardisation efforts towards enabling safe UAV operations, while taking into consideration additional IoT inherent challenges such as security, data protection and privacy.