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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Main Authors: Jarne Van Mulders, Jona Cappelle, Sarah Goossens, Lieven De Strycker, Liesbet Van der Perre
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-02-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
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.
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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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