Chapter in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in Smart Cities

Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly gaining attention of industry, academia, but also common enthusiasts for their freedom of movement, reduced costs and flexible usage. Indeed, in the recent years, the introduction of low cost and open microcontrollers has made it possible to experience giant leaps in maneuverability, automated piloting and battery lifetime.

In the framework of smart cities and smart regions, availability of drone or other aerial platforms can enable new services, especially where flexible and fast deployment represent the major requirement.

This chapter proposes to describe potential scenarios for application of drones in smart city scenarios. After an introductory description of the drones and their major features, the chapter will focus the following application scenarios: (i) improved/flexible data coverage, (ii) data gathering/acquisition, (iii) emergency scenarios.