Remotely piloted aircraft systems and forests: a global state of the art and future challenges

Remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) platforms are able to optimize the process of acquiring aerial images and improve the quality of the products generated in terms of spatial and temporal resolution. The exponential advance of the use of RPAS platforms in forestry, especially from the year 2010, is noteworthy. In this review, we present the global state of the art of the development and applications of RPAS technology in forestry, structured from a systematic review. Our results reveal a trend towards the use of multirotor RPAS platforms compared with fixed-wing platforms and that sensors that register in the visible spectral range are still the most widely used. More recent research has shown applications geared especially for areas such as forest inventory, with many innovations based on the detection of individual trees. Special focus has also been given to new alternatives for pest and disease mapping and phenological phenomena that occur at short intervals, as well as the monitoring of fires and postharvest areas. Therefore, there is a great potential for the use of RPAS platforms in a wide range of forest applications, whether linked to the productive sector or to the conservation of biodiversity, with great advances for spatiotemporal forest monitoring and expectations of further progress for the coming years.