Development of Path Planning Tool for Unmanned System Considering Energy Consumption

Increasing the flight endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has received attention recently. To solve this problem, two research topics have generally appeared: Shortest-path planning (SPP) and remaining-flying-range estimation. In this work, energy-efficient path planning by considering the distance between waypoint nodes, the minimum and maximum speed of the UAV, the weight of the UAV, and the angle between two intersecting edges is proposed. The performances of energy-efficient path planning (EEPP) and generic shortest-path planning are compared using extended-Kalman-filter-based state-of-charge and state-of-power estimation. Using this path-planning tool and considering energy consumption during flight operation, two different path plans can be obtained and compared in advance so that the operator can decide which path to choose by consulting a comparison chart. According to the experimental results, the EEPP algorithm results in 0.96% of improved SOC leftover and 11.03 (W) of lowered SOP compared to the SPP algorithm.