Algorithm for Calculating the Flight Time of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Aerial Photography

Abstract

The paper shows the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles with additional outboard equipment for aerial photography. It is noted that some parameters of the drone and additional suspension equipment are not taken into account by the software when calculating the drone flight time for one battery charge. (Research purpose) To develop an algorithm for calculating the flight time of an unmanned aerial vehicle with installed outboard equipment. (Materials and methods) The technical characteristics of DJI Phantom 4 pro and DJI Matrice 200v2 were studied, as well as the specifications of Parrot Sequoia, MicaSense Altum multispectral cameras mounted on the drone. The existing research results are used to calculate the flight mission time depending on the route length and the battery capacity. (Results and discussion) It is found that the maximum flight time of a drone with additional outboard equipment is reduced due to the additional equipment mass, increased power consumption, the preflight preparation time, the need to return to the take-off point and the necessity to preserve the battery life and save the flight load. The maximum flight time calculated for DJI Phantom 4 pro and DJI Matrice 200v2 with multispectral cameras Parrot Sequoia, MicaSense Altum is 8 minutes and 18 minutes, respectively, with a minimum flight load. A method for calculating the number of batteries for aerial photography with additional outboard equipment is determined. (Conclusions) An algorithm for calculating the flight time of an unmanned aerial vehicle with additional outboard equipment is developed, the parameters ignored by the standard software in the flight time calculation are taken into account.

Keywords

• digital agriculture
• unmanned aerial vehicle
• aerial photography
• multispectral camera
• outboard equipment
• flight mission
• flight time