Energy Efficient Optimization for Solar-Powered UAV Communications System

Abstract

In this work, we explore the energy efficiency optimization for a solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications system. We consider a scenario where a number of ground users (GUs) connect with a solar-powered multi-antenna UAV over a wireless link. First, we are able to derive the relations between the uplink data rate and heading angle of UAV and transmission power of GUs. In addition, the harvested energy from solar light is also affected by UAV’s angle. Accordingly, with the objective to maximize the energy efficiency that is related to uplink data rate and energy consumption, we propose to dynamically adjust the UAV trajectory and gesture, by optimizing its velocity, acceleration, heading angle and ground user transmission power. Performance evaluations demonstrate the advantages of the presented scheme on the design of solar-powered UAV communications system.