Energy-Aware Coverage Path Planner for Multirotor UAVS

Coverage Path Planning (CPP) is crucial for UAV applications such as inspection and surveying. While existing CPP methods often focus on minimizing distance or time, energy consumption remains a critical, relatively unexamined constraint, especially for multirotor drones. This paper proposes a novel CPP approach that directly incorporates an energy model into the path-planning process. By utilizing a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) framework and an energy model, the proposed method aims to minimize energy consumption while ensuring complete coverage of the target area. Simulations and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach gives optimal solutions, and using this richer cost function reduces the processing time for the MILP problem, opening the door for faster online CPP planners.