Design of Energy-Efficient Solar – AI Drone for Sustainable Aerial Applications

The rapid growth of urban populations and large public gatherings has increased the demand for efficient, accurate, and real-time crowd monitoring solutions. Conventional people counting methods, such as manual observation or fixed surveillance cameras, suffer from limited coverage, lack of mobility, and high operational effort. This paper presents a solar-powered, AI-enabled drone system for automated aerial people counting. The system employs a drone-mounted ESP32-CAM module to capture aerial video footage, processed using the Single Shot Detector (SSD) object detection algorithm for real-time human identification and enumeration. A hybrid power system integrates photovoltaic panels with a rechargeable battery to extend flight duration and enable sustained surveillance in remote or large-scale environments. Experimental results demonstrate accurate human detection with minimal processing delay, stable flight performance, and improved energy efficiency. The proposed system offers superior scalability, mobility, and cost-effectiveness compared to conventional surveillance approaches, with significant applications in public safety, event management, disaster response, and urban planning.