The 6G integrated perception and networking technology enables the low-altitude economy to achieve carbon neutrality: Dynamic sleep strategy for eVTOL wireless charging based on time-energy-carbon coupling
- 1School of Data Science, Tongren University, Tongren, China
- 2College of Computer Science and Engineering, Huizhou University, Huizhou, China
Abstract
In response to the bottleneck issues of energy consumption and carbon emissions caused by the explosive growth of the low-altitude economy, we break away from the traditional single-machine energy-saving research paradigm and innovatively reconfigure the sixth-generation mobile communication (6G) perception-integration base station into a “power-information” dual-mode supply node that can enter a dormant state. The time-energy-carbon ternary coupling model (TEC-6G) was constructed, and the collaborative trade-off mechanism of the base station sleep ratio, the pointing angle of the microwave energy beam and the quality of service (QoS) of the eVTOL task was quantified for the first time. Based on the real geographical topology of 5G-A base stations in the Yangtze River Delta region and the dataset of 12,000 eVTOL flight paths. A 3.5 GHz phased array wireless energy transmission link was built on the MATLAB platform, specifically designed for opportunistic hovering-stage trickle charging and emergency power supplementation during eVTOL mission profiles, rather than sustained cruising power delivery. By integrating the measured millimeter-wave channel impulse responses, a two-stage solution framework of graph neural network-Particle swarm hybrid (GNN-PSO) was designed. Experiments show that under the strict constraint of task delay loss ≤2 %, 38% of the base stations in the entire network can enter the intelligent sleep state. The opportunistic wireless charging reduces the average grid electricity consumption of eVTOL per flight by 27.4% under idealized line-of-sight conditions (equivalent to 0.92 kg carbon reduction at the theoretical upper bound), achieved through 8–15 minute hovering windows at designated vertiports where RF beam power transfer supplements battery reserves. Under practical deployment assumptions-accounting for 3 dB cable/feed loss, 2 dB impedance mismatch, 40% effective aperture utilization due to eVTOL fuselage curvature and attitude variation, and a regulatory EIRP ceiling of 47 dBm (3 dB below the theoretical 50 dBm limit for the 3.5 GHz band in urban China)-the net DC power drops to 0.68 kW at 10 m, yielding a conservative 11.2% grid electricity reduction (0.38 kg CO2e per flight). The 27.4% figure is retained as the Pareto-optimal theoretical upper bound for algorithm benchmarking. The system-level energy utilization rate has jumped from the benchmark 31.2% to 48.6%. Under an annual operation scale of 100,000 flights, the cumulative carbon reduction of 92 tCO2e is equivalent to the annual sequestration of 4,200 mature broadleaf trees (22 kg CO2e/tree/year, IPCC central estimate), with a conservative uncertainty range of [3,100, 6,100] trees accounting for species and climate variability. The research results provide deployable parametric decision-making tools and a phased carbon peak roadmap for 2025–2030 for the green operation of the low-altitude economy.
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BibTeX
@article{chen2026integrated,
title = {{The 6G integrated perception and networking technology enables the low-altitude economy to achieve carbon neutrality: Dynamic sleep strategy for eVTOL wireless charging based on time-energy-carbon coupling}},
author = {Huajun Chen and Xiaoye Wang and Lina Yuan and Jing Gong},
journal = {PLOS One},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0347398},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347398},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The 6G integrated perception and networking technology enables the low-altitude economy to achieve carbon neutrality: Dynamic sleep strategy for eVTOL wireless charging based on time-energy-carbon coupling
AU - Huajun Chen
AU - Xiaoye Wang
AU - Lina Yuan
AU - Jing Gong
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/16
JO - PLOS One
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0347398
UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0347398
AB - In response to the bottleneck issues of energy consumption and carbon emissions caused by the explosive growth of the low-altitude economy, we break away from the traditional single-machine energy-saving research paradigm and innovatively reconfigure the sixth-generation mobile communication (6G) perception-integration base station into a “power-information” dual-mode supply node that can enter a dormant state. The time-energy-carbon ternary coupling model (TEC-6G) was constructed, and the collaborative trade-off mechanism of the base station sleep ratio, the pointing angle of the microwave energy beam and the quality of service (QoS) of the eVTOL task was quantified for the first time. Based on the real geographical topology of 5G-A base stations in the Yangtze River Delta region and the dataset of 12,000 eVTOL flight paths. A 3.5 GHz phased array wireless energy transmission link was built on the MATLAB platform, specifically designed for opportunistic hovering-stage trickle charging and emergency power supplementation during eVTOL mission profiles, rather than sustained cruising power delivery. By integrating the measured millimeter-wave channel impulse responses, a two-stage solution framework of graph neural network-Particle swarm hybrid (GNN-PSO) was designed. Experiments show that under the strict constraint of task delay loss ≤2 %, 38% of the base stations in the entire network can enter the intelligent sleep state. The opportunistic wireless charging reduces the average grid electricity consumption of eVTOL per flight by 27.4% under idealized line-of-sight conditions (equivalent to 0.92 kg carbon reduction at the theoretical upper bound), achieved through 8–15 minute hovering windows at designated vertiports where RF beam power transfer supplements battery reserves. Under practical deployment assumptions-accounting for 3 dB cable/feed loss, 2 dB impedance mismatch, 40% effective aperture utilization due to eVTOL fuselage curvature and attitude variation, and a regulatory EIRP ceiling of 47 dBm (3 dB below the theoretical 50 dBm limit for the 3.5 GHz band in urban China)-the net DC power drops to 0.68 kW at 10 m, yielding a conservative 11.2% grid electricity reduction (0.38 kg CO2e per flight). The 27.4% figure is retained as the Pareto-optimal theoretical upper bound for algorithm benchmarking. The system-level energy utilization rate has jumped from the benchmark 31.2% to 48.6%. Under an annual operation scale of 100,000 flights, the cumulative carbon reduction of 92 tCO2e is equivalent to the annual sequestration of 4,200 mature broadleaf trees (22 kg CO2e/tree/year, IPCC central estimate), with a conservative uncertainty range of [3,100, 6,100] trees accounting for species and climate variability. The research results provide deployable parametric decision-making tools and a phased carbon peak roadmap for 2025–2030 for the green operation of the low-altitude economy.
SN - 1932-6203
ER -