Powdroid is a command-line tool for measuring energy consumption of android apps. Just test your application for several minutes and get a csv output file with different energy-related metrics.

Install the following dependencies:

• Android SDK platform tools (https://developer.android.com/studio/releases/platform-tools)
• Python 3.10 or below (https://www.python.org/downloads/)
• Pandas module
• GO runtime (https://go.dev/dl/)

⚠️ Then you must add command adb to your environment PATH (python and go should already be in the path, if not add them like adb):

• On Windows, edit the PATH environment variable in Advanced System Settings, then System Properties, then Environment Variables, and finally choose Path and edit it by adding the new path (the location where you installed platform-tools).
• On Unix-style systems: export PATH=/the/path/to/target/:$PATH to your .profile or .bashrc file.

• Disable the Battery Saver Mode
• Disable screen timeout
• Set the brightness and sound level at 50%
• Kill running apps and background services
• A minimum 3-minute session (Battery level must decrease)

First, activate USB Debugging in your Android phone in developer options. To verify and facilitate the use of "PowDroid" it is advised to do the first "Handshake" between your phone and the computer by connecting the phone through USB to the computer and type in a command prompt or shell the following: adb devices. On your phone a prompt should appear asking for permission for debugging. If the computer is your personal computer and safe, you should check Always allow from this computer.

Just run python powdroid.py in your terminal and follow the on-screen instructions.

First, plug your phone to the computer. When it's plugged in you can validate the first prompt by hitting Enter.

This will attempt (if the manufacturer allows it) to kill all background process then proceed to clear a log file of android call batterystats.

You will be prompted to disconnect your device, then hit enter. It's important to hit enter after disconnecting the device otherwise the program will crash when collecting the data.

At this moment the consumption is being recorded. You can do the testing.

After the testing period is over, press enter. Wait for the next prompt to plug the device to the computer. It's important to connect the device before hitting enter otherwise the program will crash when collecting the data.

Data collection is in progress and can take several minutes. No user action is needed afterwards. Be sure to not disconnect the phone during the whole data collection process.

When PowDroid finished processing the data, it will generate a CSV file in the output folder and prints the path to the file on the terminal. The available variables are the following:

One basic statistics is to sum up the Energy (J) to get the total amount of energy consumed during your testing period. Of course, further analysis can be performed.

The project is developed and maintained by:

• Olivier Le Goaër
• Adel Noureddine

Previous contributors : Fares Bouaffar (initial author), Pierre-Antoine Larguet, Alex Striedelmeyer, Johan Pelay. PowDroid was first released on our old university git repository here, and on our old gitlab repository here.

To cite PowDroid, please cite our paper in the 2nd International Workshop on Sustainable Software Engineering (SUSTAINSE) at ASE 2021 conference.

• (link: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03380605v1 text: PowDroid: Energy Profiling of Android Applications). Fares Bouaffar, Olivier Le Goaer, and Adel Noureddine. In the Second International Workshop on Sustainable Software Engineering (SUSTAINSE)/(ASE'21), Melbourne, Australia, November 2021.

@inproceedings{bouaffar2021powdroid,
  title = {PowDroid: Energy Profiling of Android Applications},
  author = {Bouaffar, Fares and Le Goaer, Olivier and Noureddine, Adel},
  booktitle = {2nd International Workshop on Sustainable Software Engineering (SUSTAINSE), at ASE 2021},
  address = {Melbourne, Australia}
  year = {2021}
  month = {Nov},
  keywords = {Energy consumption; Android; Battery drain; Estimation; Tool}
}

PowDroid is licensed under the GNU GPL 3 license only (GPL-3.0-only).

Copyright (c) 2021-2024, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour. All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0 only (GPL-3.0-only) which accompanies this distribution, and is available at: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html