Cost-Minimizing System Design for Surveillance of Large, Inaccessible Agricultural Areas Using Drones of Limited Range

Luis Vargas Tamayo, Christopher Thron, Jean Louis Kedieng Ebongue Fendji, Shauna-Kay Thomas and Anna Förster
Additional contact information
Luis Vargas Tamayo: Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Department of Science and Mathematics Killeen, TX 76549, USA
Christopher Thron: Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Department of Science and Mathematics Killeen, TX 76549, USA
Jean Louis Kedieng Ebongue Fendji: University Institute of Technology, University of Ngaoundéré, P.O. Box 454 Ngaoundéré, Cameroon
Shauna-Kay Thomas: Texas A&M University-Central Texas, Department of Science and Mathematics Killeen, TX 76549, USA
Anna Förster: Sustainable Communication Networks, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-25

Abstract: Drones are used increasingly for agricultural surveillance. The limited flight range of drones poses a problem for surveillance of large, inaccessible areas. One possible solution is to place autonomous, solar-powered charging stations within the area of interest, where the drone can recharge during its mission. This paper designs and implements a software system for planning low-cost drone coverage of large areas. The software produces a feasible, cost-minimizing charging station placement, as well as a drone path specification. Multiple optimizations are required, which are formulated as integer linear programs. In extensive simulations, the resulting drone paths achieved 70–90 percent of theoretical optimal performance in terms of minimizing mission time for a given number of charging stations, for a variety of field configurations.

Keywords: drones; surveillance; route planning; optimization; charging station (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8878/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/21/8878/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:21:p:8878-:d:434909

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().