Current status and development trend of UAV remote sensing applications in the mining industry

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing is a state-of-the-art technology that integrates UAV, remote sensing sensor, GPS differential positioning, communication, and other technologies to achieve rapid collection, processing, and analysis of geographic environmental information. UAV remote sensing is considered an important supplement of spaceborne remote sensing and is recently being widely used in the topographical surveying and mapping, precision agriculture, heritage inspection, and emergency rescue, etc. For the traditional mining industry, high-quality and real-time UAV remote sensing data can be obtained at reasonable costs and benefit the mining operations, particularly for numerous small- and medium-scale mining sites where equipments and professional expertise are expensive. However, application scenarios of UAV remote sensing in the mining industry are rarely reported and lack systematic review. Therefore, the definition, platform composition, current status, and general workflow of UAV remote sensing technology were summarized in this study. Then, through significant domestic and foreign literature surveys, the application scenarios and practical case studies of UAV remote sensing in the mining industry were systematically presented. Finally, the development trend was analyzed on the basis of the shortcomings of current technology. Results show that (1) UAV remote sensing technology has the advantages of low costs, strong maneuverability, flexible data sampling settings, timeliness, repeatability, and high resolution. (2) The current applications of UAV remote sensing in the mining industry mainly include the operations management of open-pit mines, safety monitoring of tailing ponds, emergency rescue, environmental monitoring of mining areas, and prevention and control of slope disasters. (3) The development trend of UAV remote sensing technology application will include the standardization of UAV supervision, simplification of UAV control mode, augmentation of UAV endurance time, improvement of the quality of results, and further expansion of application scenarios. UAV remote sensing technology has broad application prospects in the mining industry and is bound to become an indispensable part of smart mines.