Both unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and intelligent reflecting surfaces
(IRS) are gaining traction as transformative technologies for upcoming wireless
networks. The IRS-aided UAV communication, which introduces IRSs into UAV
communications, has emerged in an effort to improve the system performance
while also overcoming UAV communication constraints and issues. The purpose of
this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of IRSassisted UAV
communications. First, we provide five examples of how IRSs and UAVs can be
combined to achieve unrivaled potential in difficult situations. The
technological features of the most recent relevant researches on IRS-aided UAV
communications from the perspective of the main performance criteria, i.e.,
energy efficiency, security, spectral efficiency, etc. Additionally, previous
research studies on technology adoption as machine learning algorithms. Lastly,
some promising research directions and open challenges for IRS-aided UAV
communication are presented