UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact
Internet of Things (IoT) nodes get deployed for a variety of applications and often need to operate on batteries. This restricts their autonomy and/or can have a major ecological impact. The core idea of this paper is to use a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to provide energy to IoT nodes, and hence p...
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MDPI AG
2023-02-01
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Series: | Sensors |
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2291 |
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author | Jarne Van Mulders Jona Cappelle Sarah Goossens Lieven De Strycker Liesbet Van der Perre |
author_facet | Jarne Van Mulders Jona Cappelle Sarah Goossens Lieven De Strycker Liesbet Van der Perre |
author_sort | Jarne Van Mulders |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Internet of Things (IoT) nodes get deployed for a variety of applications and often need to operate on batteries. This restricts their autonomy and/or can have a major ecological impact. The core idea of this paper is to use a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to provide energy to IoT nodes, and hence prolong their autonomy. In particular, the objective is to perform a comparison of the total energy consumption resulting from UAV-based recharging or battery replacement versus full provisioning at install time or remote RF-based wireless power transfer. To that end, an energy consumption model for a small license-free UAV is derived, and expressions for system efficiencies are formulated. An exploration of design and deployment parameters is performed. Our assessment shows that UAV-based servicing of IoT nodes is by far more beneficial in terms of energy efficiency when nodes at distances further than a few meters are serviced, with the gap increasing to orders of magnitude with the distance. Our numerical results also show that battery swapping from an energy perspective outperforms recharging in the field, as the latter increases hovering time and the energy consumption related to that considerably. The ecological aspects of the proposed methods are further evaluated, e.g., considering toxic materials and e-waste. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:10:25Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-fc02880038b8439eaa6170bd2ad6cf92 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1424-8220 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-11T08:10:25Z |
publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
record_format | Article |
series | Sensors |
spelling | doaj.art-fc02880038b8439eaa6170bd2ad6cf922023-11-16T23:12:53ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202023-02-01234229110.3390/s23042291UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological ImpactJarne Van Mulders0Jona Cappelle1Sarah Goossens2Lieven De Strycker3Liesbet Van der Perre4ESAT-DRAMCO, Ghent Technology Campus, KU Leuven, 9000 Ghent, BelgiumESAT-DRAMCO, Ghent Technology Campus, KU Leuven, 9000 Ghent, BelgiumESAT-DRAMCO, Ghent Technology Campus, KU Leuven, 9000 Ghent, BelgiumESAT-DRAMCO, Ghent Technology Campus, KU Leuven, 9000 Ghent, BelgiumESAT-DRAMCO, Ghent Technology Campus, KU Leuven, 9000 Ghent, BelgiumInternet of Things (IoT) nodes get deployed for a variety of applications and often need to operate on batteries. This restricts their autonomy and/or can have a major ecological impact. The core idea of this paper is to use a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to provide energy to IoT nodes, and hence prolong their autonomy. In particular, the objective is to perform a comparison of the total energy consumption resulting from UAV-based recharging or battery replacement versus full provisioning at install time or remote RF-based wireless power transfer. To that end, an energy consumption model for a small license-free UAV is derived, and expressions for system efficiencies are formulated. An exploration of design and deployment parameters is performed. Our assessment shows that UAV-based servicing of IoT nodes is by far more beneficial in terms of energy efficiency when nodes at distances further than a few meters are serviced, with the gap increasing to orders of magnitude with the distance. Our numerical results also show that battery swapping from an energy perspective outperforms recharging in the field, as the latter increases hovering time and the energy consumption related to that considerably. The ecological aspects of the proposed methods are further evaluated, e.g., considering toxic materials and e-waste.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2291Internet of Thingsenergy efficiencywireless power transfersustainability |
spellingShingle | Jarne Van Mulders Jona Cappelle Sarah Goossens Lieven De Strycker Liesbet Van der Perre UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact Sensors Internet of Things energy efficiency wireless power transfer sustainability |
title | UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact |
title_full | UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact |
title_fullStr | UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact |
title_full_unstemmed | UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact |
title_short | UAV-Based Servicing of IoT Nodes: Assessment of Ecological Impact |
title_sort | uav based servicing of iot nodes assessment of ecological impact |
topic | Internet of Things energy efficiency wireless power transfer sustainability |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2291 |
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