Leveraging precision agriculture techniques using UAVs and emerging disruptive technologies

Abstract

The next great innovation in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) technology is smart UAVs, which aim to provide new possibilities in numerous applications. There is an increasing usage of UAVs in various fields of civil applications including live tracking, wireless connectivity, distribution of goods, remote sensing, protection and surveillance, precision agriculture, and review of civil infrastructure. UAVs or drones have a tremen- dous potential to provide smart farming with various productive solutions. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies together with UAVs are anticipated to transform agriculture, allowing decision- making in days rather than weeks, offering substantial cost savings and yield increases. These technologies are employed in a number of different ways, from monitoring crop status and amount of moisture in soil in real time to using drones to help with activities such as the application of pesticide spray. Nonethe- less, the employment of such IoT and smart networking technol- ogy, exposes the smart farming ecosystem to cyber security risks and vulnerabilities. This survey gives a detailed understanding of UAV applications in Precision Agriculture (PA). In this survey, we demonstrate a comprehensive analysis on security and privacy in a smart farming scenario. In this complex and dispersed cyber- physical environment, we describe how Blockchain technology along with 5 G in UAVs communication network can dissipate the security issues of the network. The survey addresses possible scenarios for cyber threats and the advancement in the fields of machine learning and artificial intelligence that can boost cybersecurity. At last, the survey outlines open research issues and future directions in the field of cybersecurity in UAVs and PA.