Urban Traffic Monitoring and Analysis Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): A Systematic Literature Review

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are gaining considerable interest in transportation engineering in order to monitor and analyze traffic. This systematic review surveys the scientific contributions in the application of UAVs for civil engineering, especially those related to traffic monitoring. Following the PRISMA framework, 34 papers were identified in five scientific databases. First, this paper introduces previous works in this field. In addition, the selected papers were analyzed, and some conclusions were drawn to complement the findings. It can be stated that this is still a field in its infancy and that progress in advanced image processing techniques and technologies used in the construction of UAVs will lead to an explosion in the number of applications, which will result in increased benefits for society, reducing unpleasant situations, such as congestion and collisions in major urban centers of the world.