Mission Planner for UAV Battery Replacement

Abstract

The paper presents a mission planner for an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) battery management system. The objective of the system is to plan replacements of the UAV's battery on the static battery management stations. The plan ensures that UAVs have sufficient energy to fulfill their long-term mission, which would otherwise be impossible. The paper provides a detailed description of the mission planner and all its components. The functionality of the planner is successfully demonstrated in two distinct simulated scenarios with a fleet of UAVs and several battery stations. One scenario places particular emphasis on its resemblance to an area coverage mission in an existing city park. The mission is designed in ground control software and acquired from a UAV simulated with PX4 Software in the Loop (PX4 SITL). In both scenarios, an optimal plan is identified that enables the successful completion of missions that would otherwise be unfeasible without battery replacements.