Abstract
Energy efficiency is a topic with increasing relevance in the computing field. The Green Computing paradigm is a global concept that aims at energy efficiency, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, using less harmful materials, and encouraging reuse and recycling. For battery-powered embedded systems like Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), energy efficiency increases their autonomy, resulting in tasks being realized with less power. With less power being consumed during each mission, the battery will require fewer recharges, thereby increasing its lifetime and reducing the waste. Even though some effort has been done in energy efficiency for UAVs, most published papers focus on finding alternative energy sources for those vehicles. In this paper, we present the Navigation Phases (NP) platform, which provides a very well-defined way of controlling the behaviour of UAV’s internal components during a mission. The main concepts of NP are provided, as well as the results of an initial prototype for controlling the component’s behaviour through different mission stages.