Welcome to the tethered UAV cable optimization landing page. These tools are based on the research presented in the paper "Cable Optimization and Drag Estimation for Tether-Powered Multirotor UAVs". They help design efficient tethered UAVs by optimizing cable parameters and estimating aerodynamic drag. If you use them in your research, please cite the paper.
@inproceedings{beffert2025icuas,
author = {Beffert, Max and Zell, Andreas},
title = {Cable Optimization and Drag Estimation for Tether-Powered Multirotor UAVs},
booktitle = {2025 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS)},
publisher = {IEEE},
year = {2025},
month = May
}This tool assists in selecting the optimal tether cable for tether-powered multirotor UAVs, balancing electrical losses, weight, and aerodynamic drag. It supports both predefined and custom motor efficiency curves, allowing users to tailor calculations to their specific UAV setup.
This tool estimates the forward drag coefficient of a UAV based on flight data from ArduCopter log files. The results can be used into the Cable Optimization tool to optimize for forward flight.