Recent Advancements, Challenges, and Future Directions of Integrating Drones in Smart City Traffic Management: A Systematic Review

The implementation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones has gained immense attention in recent years due to their high potential in enhancing traffic management in a smart city context. This systematic review aims to provide a thorough analysis of the applications of drones in smart traffic management, and limitations and challenges upon technology adoption, as well as future research directions in this field. The search was conducted by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) method to identify relevant articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria published in the past 10 years, specifically from January 1, 2014, to September 19, 2024. By analyzing the final selection of 14 research articles from databases such as Scopus, ScienceDirect, SpringerOpen, ACM Digital Library, and EBSCO, the results reveal that integrating UAVs into smart city traffic management provides substantial advantages in the perspectives of both ground monitoring and airspace control. This systematic review also contributes to offering a solid foundation for researchers or stakeholders to gain a thorough understanding of drone technologies in making revolutionary breakthroughs within the field of traffic‐related aspect to strengthen the transportation system in smart cities.