Unmanned airboat technology and applications in environment and agriculture

• Published in: Computers and electronics in agriculture Vol. 197; p. 106920
• Main Authors: Liu, Yufei, Wang, Jichun, Shi, Yachao, He, Zhenni, Liu, Fei, Kong, Wenwen, He, Yong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.06.2022; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Artificial intelligence; Automatic control; Environmental monitoring; New technology; Surface vehicles; Task complexity; Technical services; Unmanned airboat; Unmanned vehicles; Automatic control; Unmanned airboat; Environmental monitoring; Agricultural production
• ISSN: 0168-1699; 1872-7107
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compag.2022.106920

••The structural advantages and disadvantages of the unmanned airboat are confirmed clearly.••The unmanned airboat based autonomous navigation technology is detailed.••The existing applications of unmanned airboat in environment and agriculture are summarized.••The challenges, future prospects and application potential of unmanned airboat are discussed. The rapid development of new technologies such as automatic control technology, sensor technology, and artificial intelligence(AI) has contributed to the development of unmanned airboats(UA) and their applications in recent years. UA has the characteristics of lightness, flexibility, and little environmental interference. It has been significant for accomplishing automatic environmental monitoring and agricultural production tasks, especially when the water environment is complex and challenging for traditional unmanned surface vehicles(USVs). This review focuses on the challenges faced in the development of UA and proposes specific targeted countermeasures and suggestions. The structure of the UA was first presented systematically, then its applications in environmental monitoring and agricultural production were introduced and summarized comprehensively. Finally, the challenges and prospects of UA were examined in detail. This review can provide theoretical and technical support to promote the applications of UA for automated operation.