Unmanned aerial vehicle is abbreviated as "UAV" in English. Since the birth of the aircraft in the early 20th century, people at that time have proposed the idea of unmanned aircraft due to the safety of flying the aircraft. It was not until the 1930s that the British Ferrer Company transformed a "Queen" dual fixed-wing aircraft into an unmanned target drone, which opened the prelude to the entry of unmanned aerial vehicles into aviation history.

UAVs tend to be better suited for tasks that are too "dumb, dirty or dangerous" than manned aircraft. UAVs can be divided into military and civilian according to the application field. In terms of military use, UAVs are divided into reconnaissance aircraft and target aircraft. In terms of civil use, drones + industrial applications are the real needs of uavs; in aerial photography, agriculture, plant protection, micro selfie, express transportation, disaster rescue, observation of wild animals, monitoring of infectious diseases, surveying and mapping, news reporting, power inspection , disaster relief, film and television shooting, manufacturing romance and other fields have greatly expanded the use of drones themselves, and developed countries are also actively expanding industry applications and developing drone technology.
In September 2018, the 62nd meeting of the Harmonized System Committee (HSC) of the World Customs Organization decided to classify drones as "flying cameras".