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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Performance evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicles in automatic power meter readings

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Author(s):
Neto, Jose R. T. ; Boukerche, Azzedine ; Yokoyama, Roberto S. ; Guidoni, Daniel L. ; Meneguette, Rodolfo I. ; Ueyama, Jo ; Villas, Leandro A.
Total Authors: 7
Document type: Journal article
Source: Ad Hoc Networks; v. 60, p. 11-25, MAY 15 2017.
Web of Science Citations: 5
Abstract

Typically, the electric power companies employ a group of power meter readers to collect data on the customers energy consumption. This task is usually carried out manually, which can lead to high cost and errors, causing financial losses. Some approaches have tried to minimize these problems, using strategies such as discovering the minimal route or relying on vehicles to perform the readings. However, errors in the manual readings can occur and vehicles suffer from congestion and high fuel and maintenance costs. In this work, we go further and propose an architecture to the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) system using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). The main challenge of the solution is to design a robust and lightweight protocol that is capable of dealing with wireless communication collisions. Therefore, the main contribution of this work is the design of a new protocol to ensure wireless communication from UAV to the power meters. We validated and evaluated the architecture in an urban scenario, with results showing a decrease of time and distance when compared to other approaches. We also evaluated the system proposed with Linear Flight Plan, the Ant Colony Optimization and Guided Local Search meta heuristic. Our mechanism attains an improvement of 98% in reducing the message collisions and reducing the energy consumption of the power meters.(C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. (AU)

FAPESP's process: 15/07538-1 - Developing Next Generation Smart Services and Applications for Smart Cities
Grantee:Leandro Aparecido Villas
Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
FAPESP's process: 15/11536-4 - A framework for vehicular networks aid in the big cities management
Grantee:Rodolfo Ipolito Meneguette
Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants