Investigation of a Distributed System of Charging Stations for the Power Supply of a Group of Multicopter-Type Uavs

Due to the accelerated growth in the use of groups of autonomously functioning unmannedaerial vehicles (UAVs) in various environments, solving the problem of optimizing the functioningof groups of such vehicles according to the criterion of the minimum energy consumed is an urgentscientific task. In this article, a new approach is being developed to ensure energy saving of agroup of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by using a distributed system of UAV charging modulesthat provide the necessary versatility in servicing different types of vehicles. It is assumed thatthe charging modules are installed at a subset of service stations, between which multicopter-typeUAVs ply, carrying out a cargo delivery mission. It is necessary to determine such a number and adirectly specified subset of service stations equipped with such modules that would deliver theoptimum of some quality functional characterizing the functioning of a group of UAVs. The articlesuggests as such a functional the ratio of the number of UAVs that have successfully fulfilled thetasks assigned to them for the delivery of goods to the number of stations with charging modules.The model of UAV movement between destinations assumes taking into account not only the cruisingmode, but also the maneuvering of the device during takeoff and landing; the dependence ofthe energy consumption rate on the current kinematic values of the device is also taken into account.It is envisaged that the device will fall if it consumes energy below the maximum thresholdvalue. A simplified model of a service station with a charging module (CM) has been developed,implying the replacement of discharged batteries. The waiting mode of the UAV in the queue istaken into account. To study the developed algorithms for motion planning and choosing the optimaldistribution of charging modules across service stations, software based on the Unity environmenthas been created and tested. The flexibility of the latter allows modeling various algorithmsof information interactions of elements within a group of UAVs, a group of CM, as well ascross-interactions between UAVs and CM.