In-flight positional and energy use data set of a DJI Matrice 100 quadcopter for small package delivery
This provides a dataset for researchers and industry to improve UAV design, safety, and energy efficiency in package delivery drones, but it is incremental as it focuses on data collection rather than new methods.
The authors collected a dataset of 209 autonomous flights of a quadcopter for package delivery, varying operational parameters like speed and payload, resulting in over 10 hours of flight time and 65 km of distance covered with validated data.
We autonomously direct a small quadcopter package delivery Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or "drone" to take off, fly a specified route, and land for a total of 209 flights while varying a set of operational parameters. The vehicle was equipped with onboard sensors, including GPS, IMU, voltage and current sensors, and an ultrasonic anemometer, to collect high-resolution data on the inertial states, wind speed, and power consumption. Operational parameters, such as commanded ground speed, payload, and cruise altitude, are varied for each flight. This large data set has a total flight time of 10 hours and 45 minutes and was collected from April to October of 2019 covering a total distance of approximately 65 kilometers. The data collected were validated by comparing flights with similar operational parameters. We believe these data will be of great interest to the research and industrial communities, who can use the data to improve UAV designs, safety, and energy efficiency, as well as advance the physical understanding of in-flight operations for package delivery drones.