Effect of Temperature, Pressure and Humidity on Battery Consumption in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 5 - 12, 26.02.2025

Hamdi Ercan , Fahri Alperen Ayaz , Hamdi Ulucan

https://doi.org/10.30518/jav.1517098

Abstract

With the advancing technology, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have shown significant development. However, the battery technology has struggled to keep pace with these advancements, resulting in UAVs needing to efficiently manage their limited energy resources. Therefore, this study aims to examine factors that contribute to battery energy consumption beyond planned usage scenarios.
A quadcopter equipped with Pixhawk Holybro 4 flight controller was used in the study. It was tested under varying atmospheric conditions of air pressure, humidity, and temperature. The quadcopter performed automated flights, hovering at a height of 5 meters for 3 minutes, while the battery consumption was monitored. The study was conducted under real atmospheric conditions to simulate practical scenarios.
The research revealed that the examined factors significantly impact battery depletion. Specifically, temperature and humidity were observed to have a more pronounced effect on battery consumption compared to air pressure.

Keywords

Unmanned aerial vehicles, Battery consumption, Automed flight, Atmospheric conditions

Supporting Institution

This work has been supported by Erciyes University Scientific Research Projects Coordination

Project Number

The unit is under grant number code FYL-2023-12645.

References

• Abeywickrama, H. V., Jayawickrama, B. A., He, Y., & Dutkiewicz, E. (2018a). Comprehensive Energy Consumption Model for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Based on Empirical Studies of Battery Performance. IEEE Access, 6, 58383–58394.
• Abeywickrama, H. V., Jayawickrama, B. A., He, Y., & Dutkiewicz, E. (2018b). Empirical Power Consumption Model for UAVs. 2018 IEEE 88th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC-Fall), 1–5.
• Bianchi, D., Borri, A., Cappuzzo, F., & Di Gennaro, S. (2024). Quadcopter Trajectory Control Based on Energy- Optimal Reference Generator. Drones, 8(1), 29.
• Calva, P. A., & Espino C., F. (n.d.). Effect of the humidity in the ionic mobility in reduced air-density. 1998 Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena (Cat. No.98CH36257), 508–511.
• Demircioglu, H., & Basturk, H. I. (2017). Adaptive attitude and altitude control of a quadcopter despite unknown wind disturbances. 2017 IEEE 56th Annual Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), 274–279.
• Ercan, H., Ulucan, H., & Can, M. S. (2022). Investigation of wind effect on different quadcopters. Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, 94(8), 1275–1288.
• Ercan, H., Ulucan, H., & Kılıç, Ş. (2024). Effect of wind on quadcopter battery consumption. Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology.
• Leal Iga, J., Leal Iga, J., Leal Iga, C., & Flores, R. A. (2008). Effect of air density variations on greenhouse temperature model. Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 47(9–10), 855–867.
• Li, N., Liu, X., Yu, B., Li, L., Xu, J., & Tan, Q. (2021). Study on the environmental adaptability of lithium-ion battery powered UAV under extreme temperature conditions. Energy, 219, 119481.
• Prasetia, A. S., Wai, R.-J., Wen, Y.-L., & Wang, Y.-K. (2019). Mission-Based Energy Consumption Prediction of Multirotor UAV. IEEE Access, 7, 33055–33063.
• Vidal, C., Gross, O., Gu, R., Kollmeyer, P., & Emadi, A. (2019). xEV Li-Ion Battery Low-Temperature Effects—Review. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 68(5), 4560–4572.
• Yacef, F., Rizoug, N., Bouhali, O., Hamerlain, M., Mustapha, H., Fouad, Y., Yacef, F., Rizoug, N., Bouhali, O., & Hamerlain, M. (2017). Optimization of Energy Consumption for Quadcopter UAV. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321161643