Trajectory Planning for Multi-rotor UAV Based on Energy Cost Model

The application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in many fields is inseparable from trajectory planning. Due to the characteristic of low energy load of UAV, it is important to take some measures to plan the use of energy. This paper proposed a method to plan the optimal trajectory with minimum energy cost. Based on helicopter dynamics, we derived the energy-cost equations of vertical and horizontal flight of UAV to calculate the energy consumption of the determined speed trajectory. We adopted a time-based method to model the trajectory planning problem as a convex optimization problem. Numerical experiments showed the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method. The proposed model would contribute to various fields related to UAV trajectory planning and on-board energy management from a viewpoint of energy saving and range extension.