Processing time reduction for UAV optimal altitude and investigating its effect on flight time and energy consumption

ABSTRACT In this article, the time to calculate the optimal height of the UAV is investigated as an important factor in determining the total flight time, energy consumption and total delay. In particular, in this paper, the calculation of the optimal height of the UAV, reducing the time of calculating the optimal height, reducing the energy consumption, reducing the total flight time and reducing the total delay is done. First, using the average path loss and UAV transmitted power functions, we present the optimal height of the UAV in the form of an optimization problem with a convex altitude range. Then, using the golden section search (GSS) algorithm and based on the condition of the function being unimodal, we calculate the optimization problem and obtain the optimal height value, which is the minimum of the average functions of the path loss and the transmitted power of the UAV. Also, using the convexity principle, we show that the average path loss function is convex in the mentioned interval. Next, using the relationship between the time to calculate the optimal height of the drone and the total flight time, we calculate the amount of energy consumed and the total delay. The simulation results using MATLAB show that the time to calculate the optimal height with the proposed algorithm is much faster than other methods. The time to calculate the optimal height in the proposed method is 0.03 s. The energy consumption using the proposed method is 53 kJ, and the flight time is 37 s, considering the stop on the way, which is the lowest value compared to other methods. Also, the total delay in the proposed method is less than in other methods.