A Comprehensive Survey on UAV-based Data Gathering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks
Review Article  ·  Published: 16 January 2025
Issue cover
ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics
Volume 2, Issue 1, 2025: 66-75
Review Article Free to Read

A Comprehensive Survey on UAV-based Data Gathering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks

1 Department of Electronic Engineering, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi, Pakistan
* Corresponding Author: Muhammad Aamir Khan, [email protected]
Volume 2, Issue 1

Article Information

Abstract

In the recent era of communication, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) emerged as a demanding area of study due to their communication capacity especially in the application of Internet of things (IoT). As the scale and coverage of networks expand quickly, it becomes necessary to sense, transmit, and interpret the massive amount of data in IoT devices. WSN becomes even more beneficial and popular among the researchers when it integrates with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to increase the life span and establish a reliable communication between itself and Network Control Centre in an efficient way. Memory problems and network data transmission processing times are also addressed by this integration technique. In this paper, a large scale of data gathering techniques between WSN and UAV- controlled devices are addressed which will favor the research community to further enhance various design and many functional parameters like security, resource management, positioning and different processing techniques.

Graphical Abstract

A Comprehensive Survey on UAV-based Data Gathering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks

Keywords

wireless sensor network internet of things communication channel unmanned aerial vehicle network control centre data gathering

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Funding

This work was supported without any funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

References

  1. Mainetti, L., Patrono, L., & Vilei, A. (2011, September). Evolution of wireless sensor networks towards the internet of things: A survey. In SoftCOM 2011, 19th international conference on software, telecommunications and computer networks (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Riva, G. G., & Finochietto, J. M. (2012, June). Pheromone-based in-network processing for wireless sensor network monitoring systems. In 2012 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC) (pp. 6560-6564). IEEE.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  3. Jawhar, I., Mohamed, N., & Al-Jaroodi, J. (2015, June). UAV-based data communication in wireless sensor networks: Models and strategies. In 2015 International conference on unmanned aircraft systems (ICUAS) (pp. 687-694). IEEE.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  4. Singh, A. P., Luhach, A. K., Gao, X. Z., Kumar, S., & Roy, D. S. (2020). Evolution of wireless sensor network design from technology centric to user centric: an architectural perspective. International Journal of Distributed Sensor Networks, 16(8), 1550147720949138.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  5. Majid, M., Habib, S., Javed, A. R., Rizwan, M., Srivastava, G., Gadekallu, T. R., & Lin, J. C. W. (2022). Applications of wireless sensor networks and internet of things frameworks in the industry revolution 4.0: A systematic literature review. Sensors, 22(6), 2087.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  6. Iyengar, S. S., & Brooks, R. R. (2004). Distributed sensor networks. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Popescu, D., Dragana, C., Stoican, F., Ichim, L., & Stamatescu, G. (2018). A collaborative UAV-WSN network for monitoring large areas. Sensors, 18(12), 4202.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  8. Popescu, D., Stoican, F., Stamatescu, G., Ichim, L., & Dragana, C. (2020). Advanced UAV–WSN system for intelligent monitoring in precision agriculture. Sensors, 20(3), 817.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  9. Popescu, D., Stoican, F., Ichim, L., Stamatescu, G., & Dragana, C. (2019, September). Collaborative UAV-WSN system for data acquisition and processing in agriculture. In 2019 10th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Data Acquisition and Advanced Computing Systems: Technology and Applications (IDAACS) (Vol. 1, pp. 519-524). IEEE.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  10. Pravija Raj, P. V., Khedr, A. M., & Al Aghbari, Z. (2022). EDGO: UAV-based effective data gathering scheme for wireless sensor networks with obstacles. Wireless Networks, 28(6), 2499-2518.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  11. Raj, P. P., Khedr, A. M., & Aghbari, Z. A. (2023). An enhanced evolutionary scheme for obstacle-aware data gathering in uav-assisted wsns. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 14(12), 16299-16311.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  12. Nazib, R. A., Bouk, S. H., Mir, Z. H., & Ko, Y. B. (2022, January). Unplanned UAV Trajectory-based Data Collection in Large-scale Sensor Networks. In 2022 International Conference on Information Networking (ICOIN) (pp. 372-377). IEEE.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  13. Saxena, K., Gupta, N., Gupta, J., Sharma, D. K., & Dev, K. (2022). Trajectory optimization for the UAV assisted data collection in wireless sensor networks. Wireless Networks, 28(4), 1785-1796.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  14. Ali, Z. A., Masroor, S., & Aamir, M. (2019). UAV based data gathering in wireless sensor networks. Wireless Personal Communications, 106, 1801-1811.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  15. Bithas, P. S., Michailidis, E. T., Nomikos, N., Vouyioukas, D., & Kanatas, A. G. (2019). A survey on machine-learning techniques for UAV-based communications. Sensors, 19(23), 5170.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  16. Cermakova, I., Komárková, J., & Sedlak, P. (2019, June). Calculation of visible spectral indices from UAV-based data: small water bodies monitoring. In 2019 14th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  17. Tsouros, D. C., Bibi, S., & Sarigiannidis, P. G. (2019). A review on UAV-based applications for precision agriculture. Information, 10(11), 349.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  18. Ullah, S., Kim, K. I., Kim, K. H., Imran, M., Khan, P., Tovar, E., & Ali, F. (2019). UAV-enabled healthcare architecture: Issues and challenges. Future Generation Computer Systems, 97, 425-432.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  19. Kalaivanan, K., & Bhanumathi, V. (2019). Unmanned Aerial Vehicle based Reliable and Energy Efficient Data Collection from Red Alerted Area using Wireless Sensor Networks with IoT. J. Inf. Sci. Eng., 35(3), 521-536.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  20. Xiang, T. Z., Xia, G. S., & Zhang, L. (2019). Mini-unmanned aerial vehicle-based remote sensing: Techniques, applications, and prospects. IEEE geoscience and remote sensing magazine, 7(3), 29-63.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  21. Yang, X., Fu, S., Wu, B., & Zhang, M. (2020, August). A survey of key issues in UAV data collection in the Internet of Things. In 2020 IEEE Intl Conf on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing, Intl Conf on Pervasive Intelligence and Computing, Intl Conf on Cloud and Big Data Computing, Intl Conf on Cyber Science and Technology Congress (DASC/PiCom/CBDCom/CyberSciTech) (pp. 410-413). IEEE.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  22. Wei, Z., Chen, Q., Liu, S., & Wu, H. (2020). Capacity of unmanned aerial vehicle assisted data collection in wireless sensor networks. IEEE Access, 8, 162819-162829.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  23. Ma, X., Liu, T., Liu, S., Kacimi, R., & Dhaou, R. (2020). Priority-based data collection for UAV-aided mobile sensor network. Sensors, 20(11), 3034.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  24. Polonelli, T., Qin, Y., Yeatman, E. M., Benini, L., & Boyle, D. (2020). A flexible, low-power platform for UAV-based data collection from remote sensors. IEEE Access, 8, 164775-164785.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  25. Wang, X., Hu, J., & Lin, H. (2020, September). An intelligent UAV based data aggregation strategy for IoT after disaster scenarios. In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM MobiCom Workshop on Drone Assisted Wireless Communications for 5G and beyond (pp. 97-101).
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  26. Li, B., Guo, X., Zhang, R., Du, X., & Guizani, M. (2020). Performance analysis and optimization for the MAC protocol in UAV-based IoT network. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 69(8), 8925-8937.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  27. Feroz, S., & Abu Dabous, S. (2021). Uav-based remote sensing applications for bridge condition assessment. Remote Sensing, 13(9), 1809.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  28. Wang, Z., Tao, J., Gao, Y., Xu, Y., Sun, W., & Li, X. (2021). A precision adjustable trajectory planning scheme for UAV-based data collection in IoTs. Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications, 14, 655-671.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  29. Sharma, A., & Singh, P. K. (2021). UAV‐based framework for effective data analysis of forest fire detection using 5G networks: An effective approach towards smart cities solutions. International Journal of Communication Systems, e4826.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wang, X., & Chen, H. (2022). A survey of compressive data gathering in WSNs for IoTs. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing, 2022(1), 4490790.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  31. Messaoudi, K., Oubbati, O. S., Rachedi, A., Lakas, A., Bendouma, T., & Chaib, N. (2023). A survey of UAV-based data collection: Challenges, solutions and future perspectives. Journal of network and computer applications, 216, 103670.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  32. Yoon, I. (2023). Data Acquisition Control for UAV-Enabled Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks. Sensors, 23(7), 3582.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  33. Chen, J., & Tang, J. (2024). UAV-assisted data collection for wireless sensor networks with dynamic working modes. Digital Communications and Networks, 10(3), 805-812.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]
  34. Nguyen, M. T., Nguyen, C. V., Do, H. T., Hua, H. T., Tran, T. A., Nguyen, A. D., ... & Viola, F. (2021). Uav-assisted data collection in wireless sensor networks: A comprehensive survey. Electronics, 10(21), 2603.
    [CrossRef] [Google Scholar]

Cited By (7)

  1. Peng You, Peng Chen, Xi Li, Ang Bian. Gated Memory-Guided Multi-scale spatio–temporal–spectral feature fusion network for unsupervised Internet of Things time series anomaly detection. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2026 , 169 .
    [CrossRef]
  2. Jagnyashini Debadarshini, Mohan Gurusamy, Sudipta Saha. FETCH: Fast and Efficient Data Collection for Harmonizing Real and Virtual World. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2026 , 13 (10).
    [CrossRef]
  3. Gengen Li, Chunxi Yang, Guanbin Gao, Xiufeng Zhang, Enzhi Wang, Wenbo Wang, Dusit Niyato. Distributed State Estimation With Two Event-Triggered Communication Strategies via Internet of Underwater Things. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 2026 , 13 (2).
    [CrossRef]
  4. Merih Leblebici, Ali Çalhan, Murtaza Cicioğlu. Unveiling the power of features: A comparative study of machine learning and deep learning for modulation recognition. Physical Communication, 2025 , 72 .
    [CrossRef]
  5. Kenan Can Taşan, Ahmet Akbulut. A Learning-Based Measurement Validation Approach for Cooperative Multi-UAV Navigation Using Kalman Filtering. Drones, 2025 , 9 (12).
    [CrossRef]
  6. Muhammed Sefa Gör, Cafer Çelik. Logistics Planning of Autonomous Air Cargo Vehicles with Deep Learning Methods: A Literature Review. Applied Sciences, 2025 , 15 (19).
    [CrossRef]
  7. Tulkin Matkurbanov, Akhmet Utegenov, Mengliyev Davlatyor, Dilshod Matkurbonov. Advanced Trajectory Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the Context of Data Collection from Spatially Distributed Wireless Sensor Networks. Cybernetics and Information Technologies, 2025 , 25 (3).
    [CrossRef]
* Citation data provided by Crossref Cited-by.

Cite This Article

APA Style
Khan, M. A., & Farooq, F. (2025). A Comprehensive Survey on UAV-based Data Gathering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks. ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics, 2(1), 66-75. https://doi.org/10.62762/TIS.2025.790920
Export Citation
RIS Format
Compatible with EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, and other reference managers
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Khan, Muhammad Aamir
AU  - Farooq, Fahad
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/01/16
TI  - A Comprehensive Survey on UAV-based Data Gathering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks
JO  - ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics
T2  - ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics
JF  - ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics
VL  - 2
IS  - 1
SP  - 66
EP  - 75
DO  - 10.62762/TIS.2025.790920
UR  - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TIS.2025.790920
KW  - wireless sensor network
KW  - internet of things
KW  - communication channel
KW  - unmanned aerial vehicle
KW  - network control centre
KW  - data gathering
AB  - In the recent era of communication, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) emerged as a demanding area of study due to their communication capacity especially in the application of Internet of things (IoT). As the scale and coverage of networks expand quickly, it becomes necessary to sense, transmit, and interpret the massive amount of data in IoT devices. WSN becomes even more beneficial and popular among the researchers when it integrates with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to increase the life span and establish a reliable communication between itself and Network Control Centre in an efficient way. Memory problems and network data transmission processing times are also addressed by this integration technique. In this paper, a large scale of data gathering techniques between WSN and UAV- controlled devices are addressed which will favor the research community to further enhance various design and many functional parameters like security, resource management, positioning and different processing techniques.
SN  - 3068-5079
PB  - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge
LA  - English
ER  - 
BibTeX Format
Compatible with LaTeX, BibTeX, and other reference managers
@article{Khan2025A,
  author = {Muhammad Aamir Khan and Fahad Farooq},
  title = {A Comprehensive Survey on UAV-based Data Gathering Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks},
  journal = {ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {2},
  number = {1},
  pages = {66-75},
  doi = {10.62762/TIS.2025.790920},
  url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/TIS.2025.790920},
  abstract = {In the recent era of communication, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) emerged as a demanding area of study due to their communication capacity especially in the application of Internet of things (IoT). As the scale and coverage of networks expand quickly, it becomes necessary to sense, transmit, and interpret the massive amount of data in IoT devices. WSN becomes even more beneficial and popular among the researchers when it integrates with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to increase the life span and establish a reliable communication between itself and Network Control Centre in an efficient way. Memory problems and network data transmission processing times are also addressed by this integration technique. In this paper, a large scale of data gathering techniques between WSN and UAV- controlled devices are addressed which will favor the research community to further enhance various design and many functional parameters like security, resource management, positioning and different processing techniques.},
  keywords = {wireless sensor network, internet of things, communication channel, unmanned aerial vehicle, network control centre, data gathering},
  issn = {3068-5079},
  publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}

Article Metrics

Citations
Views
5064
PDF Downloads
1448

Publisher's Note

ICCK stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and Permissions

Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge (ICCK) or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics
ICCK Transactions on Intelligent Systematics
ISSN: 3068-5079 (Online) | ISSN: 3069-003X (Print)
Portico
Preserved at
Portico