The Rise of UAV-Based Smart Surveillance: A Systematic Review of Trends and Technologies

In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly referred to as drones, have witnessed rapid growth in adoption across both civilian and military domains, owing to their computational efficiency, flexibility, and adaptive control capabilities. With the growing global demand for real-time surveillance, UAV-based surveillance systems have emerged as a promising solution to enhance situational awareness, public safety, and operational efficiency across diverse environments. This systematic review evaluates recent advancements, applications, and trends in UAV-based surveillance technologies. The paper outlines the literature selection methodology, examines the current market landscape, highlights key technological innovations, sensor technologies, deployment strategies, computational frameworks, and bridges the gap between academic research and industry practice. The review highlights innovations in lightweight and full-scale artificial intelligence models, edge computing solutions, and autonomous navigation, while identifying persistent challenges related to energy efficiency, latency, and privacy. A comparative analysis elucidates performance trade-offs between commercial and research prototypes. Finally, this paper explores emerging research directions and offers insights to guide future developments in the design of intelligent, reliable, and scalable UAV-based surveillance systems.