Disease and pest stress is one of the important threats to crop growth and development, which have a very adverse impact on crop yield and quality every year, even leading to crop failure. Currently, the use of plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for pesticide spraying is the most effective means of controlling crop diseases and pests. However, the areas where crop pests and diseases occur are often presented in “point-like” or “patchy” forms, and the UAV’s full-coverage spraying method results in a great waste of pesticides. Therefore, there is an urgent need to research a method for identifying the area of diseases and pest stress to achieve precise targeted spraying, in order to reduce the amount of pesticides used and improve their utilization. By analyzing the low-altitude remote sensing images of crop fields taken by UAVs, real-time pesticide spraying prescription maps can be generated to meet the demand for precise targeted spraying. This review focuses on the actual needs of precise targeted spraying by plant protection UAVs. Firstly, the RS monitoring mechanism of crop diseases and pests by UAVs is studied. Secondly, a comprehensive investigation of the literature on UAV Low-altitude Remote Sensing (UAV-LARS) technology for monitoring and identifying crop diseases and pests is conducted, summarizing the research progress in monitoring and identifying crop diseases and pests, especially in wheat, cotton, and rice. Finally, the key issues to be addressed and the future development direction of UAV-LARS monitoring of crop diseases and pests are proposed.
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