Surveillance plays a critical role in ensuring safety, security, and situational awareness across urban, rural, and border regions. Conventional surveillance methods, including closed-circuit television (CCTV) and manual patrols, are limited by restricted coverage, high deployment costs, and lack of mobility. This paper presents AirLink, a cost-effective unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform that leverages the ESP32 microcontroller and Internet of Things (IoT) protocols for real-time aerial surveillance and telemetry. The prototype integrates Wi-Fi-based flight control, stability management using an MPU6050 inertial measurement unit (IMU), and modular expansion for camera-based video streaming using the ESP32-CAM. Experimental results from preliminary flight testing demonstrate stable hovering, responsive control with an average command latency of 150 ms, and reliable wireless communication in short-range environments. The modular and open-source design enables adaptability for various smart infrastructure applications, including traffic monitoring, disaster response, and border security. Compared to existing UAV surveillance platforms, AirLink achieves significantly lower cost without compromising essential performance. The findings validate the feasibility of ESP32-based UAVs as a scalable solution for real-time surveillance in smart city and defense applications.

 Keywords - ESP32; ESP32-CAM; IoT Drone; UAV; Smart Infrastructure; WiFi Telemetry