Energy Consumption Analysis of Downward-Tethered Quadcopter

Abstract

This paper analyze the energy consumption of a new concept of tethered quadrotor system, downward tethered quadrotor (DTQ), to provide insight about using DTQ. DTQ is one of a tethered quadrotor system in which station is located above the flight level of the quadrotor. Thanks to its system layout, the tether can play an important role in energy efficient flight of the quadrotor by adjusting the tension properly. In order to extremize the advantage of DTQ, optimization problem for mechanical power consumption of DTQ in hovering states is formulated. The DTQ in this paper considers misalignment between tether link point on the quadrotor and center of mass (CoM) of the quadrotor to simulate real system. Numerical simulation illustrates efficiency of the proposed method.