Weather-aware energy management for unmannedaerial vehicles: a machine learning application with global data integration

Abstract

This study introduces a machine learning (ML) framework to predict unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) energy requirements under diverse environmental conditions. The framework correlates UAV flight patterns with publicly accessible weather data, to yield an energy management tool applicable to a wide range of UAV configurations. The model employs the Cross-industry standard process for data mining and advanced feature engineering, offering an in-depth analysis of meteorological factors and UAV energy demands. The study assesses several multi-regression linear and ML models, whereby ensemble models gradient boosting (GB) and eXtreme gradient boosting demonstrate superior performance and accuracy. Specifically, the GB model achieved a test mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.0395 V (V) for voltage, 0.808 A (A) for current, and 9.758 mA-hours (mAh) for discharge, with prediction accuracy of over 99.9% for voltage and discharge, and 97% for current, derived from the coefficient of determination (R²). A novel integration of real-world UAV logs and weather data underpins the development of a weather-aware ML prediction model for UAV energy consumption. Our framework is capable of concurrently predicting three components of energy and power with almost uniform accuracy, a feature not found in contemporary models. Empirical test flights show a discrepancy of only 0.005 W-hour (Wh) between total predicted and actual energy consumption. This work enhances both efficiency and safety in UAV operations. The resulting energy-predictive flight planning tool sets a new benchmark for artificial intelligence (AI) applications in intelligent automation for UAVs.