Trends, Advancements, and Future Directions of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology-Based Stockpile Volume Estimation: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Advancements in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionized geospatial data acquisition by offering rapid, precise, and cost-effective alternatives to conventional surveying techniques. Accordingly, UAVs have emerged as a transformative tool for gathering data to estimate the volume in various industries. This study aims to investigate recent trends, advancements, and future directions of UAV technology in Stockpile Volume Estimation (SVE). The literature on UAV-based SVE was systematically reviewed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Relevant documents published from 2020 to February 20, 2025, were identified on the Web of Science and Scopus databases. These documents were screened via the Covidence platform, and 61 studies were included in this review. The results of this study demonstrate the current state of UAV adoption for quantifying bulk pile volume, while highlighting emerging trends and potential prospective developments in this field. In particular, the analysis of the reviewed documents revealed 8 emerging key trends and 8 future directions concerning UAV-based stockpile volume computation. Overall, the insights from this review highlight critical knowledge gaps and future research priorities, thereby guiding the development of more robust, accurate, efficient, and cost-effective approaches to estimating stockpile volume in various industries.