Mission Capability Estimation of Multicopter UAV for Low-Altitude Remote Sensing

Restricted mission capability becomes one of the most important challenges facing multicopter UAVs with the increasing complexity of the low-altitude remote sensing mission. Mission capability estimation is the major precondition and the foundation of the mission planning, decomposition, and execution. It’s constrained by platform performance, payload characteristics, mission requirements, and environmental conditions. Flight energy consumption has become the main capability metric criterion of multicopter UAVs in coverage path planning based remote sensing missions. Modeling on flight energy consumption has been the principal subject of many pieces of research. However, current models have not established a connection between inflight performance and remote sensing mission characteristics. Therefore, a mechanistic model is proposed in this study to estimate a multicopter UAV’s mission capability during the mission planning procedure. This model is based on the combination of multicopter flight mechanics and remote sensing mission-oriented coverage path planning theories. The field wind condition is taken into consideration as well. The applicability and performance of the model were evaluated by combining simulation and 60 field mission sorties. The model estimated results are in accordance with the true values. The mean error in the total energy consumption is 5% of the battery used in the experiment. This model will ultimately provide a theoretical basis for mission decision making, help to reduce the low-battery risk and guarantee the safety and efficiency of mission operations prior.