Persistent Continuous Surveillance of Remote Local Objects by Multirotor UAVs

The paper presents a methodology for designing a persistent surveillance system with continuous observation by means of multirotor drones that is based on the drone’s battery model, a detailed flight profile for uninterruptible persistent surveillance, and analytical relations of energy consumption at each time interval during the flight and charging. Computer simulations were used for the verification of the proposed methodology for the use case of DJI Mavic 3 drones for persistent surveillance at an altitude of 300 m. Based on analysis of the battery’s state of charge (SOC) changing during flight and charging, border conditions of the minimum required SOC for persistent surveillance and the minimum required number of drones were established. It was found that persistent surveillance in such a system is possible if the number of drones is 3 and more, and increasing the number of drones is efficient only up to 6 drones when the operation range reached 5190 m. Further increasing the number to 10 drones can extend the operating range to 7110 m, which is close to the maximum possible distance of 7346 m.