Digital Commons Network^™

Energy-Aware Path Planning For Fixed-Wing Seaplane Uavs, Benjamin Atkinson Wolsieffer

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are commonly used for remote sensing applications over water bodies, such as monitoring water quality or tracking harmful algal blooms. However, there are some types of measurements that are difficult to accurately obtain from the air. In existing work, water samples have been collected in situ either by hand, with an unmanned surface vehicle (USV), or with a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) UAV such as a multirotor. We propose a path planner, landing control algorithm, and energy estimator that will allow a low-cost and energy efficient fixed-wing UAV to carry out a combined remote …