UAV Energy Consumption Models for Wireless Systems Research: Model Selection and Misconceptions

TL;DR

This paper reviews UAV energy consumption models relevant to wireless systems, highlighting common misconceptions, gaps, and the importance of selecting appropriate models for accurate deployment and optimization.

Contribution

It provides a clear categorization of UAV types and flight phases, reviews existing models, and discusses misconceptions and gaps in current research.

Findings

Incorrect model use can cause significant energy estimation errors.

The paper identifies gaps in models for certain UAV scenarios.

Guidelines are provided for selecting appropriate energy models.

Abstract

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) are gaining increasing attention in wireless systems, providing new opportunities to expand the reach and improve the quality of wireless services. Despite their versatility, UAVs are limited by available energy onboard, which results in significant challenges in deploying UAV-enabled wireless systems. Modeling energy consumption is an essential component of the deployment and trajectory optimization of UAVs. This article presents a comprehensive overview of UAV energy consumption models, with a focus on their relevance to wireless systems research. We deliberately exclude data-driven and overly complex models to provide clear and practical guidelines for their use in wireless systems research. We begin by categorizing the most common types of UAVs and describing the typical flight phases considered in the literature. We then review existing energy consumption models, focusing on their scope with respect to UAV types and flight phases. We also discuss common mistakes in the use of these models and highlight the existing gaps in the literature. In particular, we show how the use of a wrong model can lead to significant errors in energy consumption calculations. Finally, we emphasize the need to develop energy consumption models for missing scenarios.