Energy Saving Quadrotor Control for Field Inspections

This article presents a control strategy to improve the energy efficiency of a quadrotor for field inspections. A power consumption analytical model for a quadrotor is constructed, which indicates that the power consumption of a quadrotor is correlated with the roll and pitch angles. Based on that, a cascaded bounded control framework is developed to regulate the roll and pitch angles within the predefined energy-efficient ranges, while a successful inspection trajectory tracking can be achieved simultaneously. Experimental studies are carried out to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method through a mock-up scenario of wind farm inspection. Compared to the conventional cascaded control framework, the proposed energy saving control strategy is capable of saving 5% energy for the same inspection assignment under wind disturbance.