scholarly journals Development of a Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Extended Flight Endurance

Drones ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Yau Hei Chu ◽  
Chun Leung Ho ◽  
Yoon Jo Lee ◽  
Boyang Li
Keyword(s):  
Power System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Solar Power ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Power System Performance

Having an exciting array of applications, the scope of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) application could be far wider one if its flight endurance can be prolonged. Solar-powered UAV, promising notable prolongation in flight endurance, is drawing increasing attention in the industries’ recent research and development. This work arose from a Bachelor’s degree capstone project at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The project aims to modify a 2-metre wingspan remote-controlled (RC) UAV available in the consumer market to be powered by a combination of solar and battery-stored power. The major objective is to greatly increase the flight endurance of the UAV by the power generated from the solar panels. The power system is first designed by selecting the suitable system architecture and then by selecting suitable components related to solar power. The flight control system is configured to conduct flight tests and validate the power system performance. Under fair experimental conditions with desirable weather conditions, the solar power system on the aircraft results in 22.5% savings in the use of battery-stored capacity. The decrease rate of battery voltage during the stable level flight of the solar-powered UAV built is also much slower than the same configuration without a solar-power system.

Parameter analysis of power system for solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle

2021 ◽  
Vol 295 ◽  
pp. 117031
Author(s):  
Chaoyu Zhang ◽  
Chengming Zhang ◽  
Liyi Li ◽  
Qingbo Guo
Keyword(s):  
Power System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Parameter Analysis ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered

scholarly journals Automatic Control and Model Verification for a Small Aileron-Less Hand-Launched Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 364 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Guo ◽  
Zhou Zhou ◽  
Xiaoping Zhu ◽  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Yuxin Ding
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Aerodynamic Force ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Model Verification ◽  
Force Coefficient ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Actuator Module

This paper describes a low-cost flight control system of a small aileron-less hand-launched solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In order to improve the accuracy of the whole system model and quantify the influence of each subsystem, detailed modeling of UAV energy and a control system including a solar model, engine, energy storage, sensors, state estimation, control law, and actuator module are established in accordance with the experiment and component principles. A whole system numerical simulation combined with the 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) simulation model is constructed based on the typical mission route, and the parameter precision sequence and energy balance are obtained. Then, a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) experiment scheme based on the Stewart platform (SP) is proposed, and three modes of acceleration, angular velocity, and attitude are designed to verify the control system through the inner and boundary states of the flight envelope. The whole system scheme is verified by flight tests at different altitudes, and the aerodynamic force coefficient and sensor error are corrected by flight data. With the increase of altitude, the cruise power increases from 47 W to 78 W, the trajectory tracking precision increases from 23 m to 44 m, the sensor measurement noise increases, and the bias decreases.

Preliminary Design of Solar Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

2012 ◽  
Vol 225 ◽  
pp. 315-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumit Jashnani ◽  
Prahsant Shaholia ◽  
Ali Khamker ◽  
Muhammad Ishfaq ◽  
Tarek Nada
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Preliminary Design ◽  
Solar Panels ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Environment Friendly ◽  
Electromechanical Drive ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Main Components

Applications involving the use of alternate, renewable energy sources are expanding exponentially, and are in high demand. Solar power has long been harnessed for such applications and aviation is no stranger to it with its strong drive towards becoming an environment-friendly industry. This paper describes a straight forward procedure to design and test a solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle that can fly continuously for 24 hours at any day of the year. The paper introduces the modeling and preparation of hardware testing of the propulsion and power sub-system. The main components of this sub-system are solar panels, the electromechanical drive train and the propeller. A design for a thrust stand to measure the performance of the system is also introduced.

The Development of a Small Solar Powered Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems

2013 ◽  
Vol 465-466 ◽  
pp. 345-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parvathy Rajendran ◽  
Howard Smith
Keyword(s):  
Power System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Endurance Performance ◽  
Power Module ◽  
Output Performance ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Long Endurance ◽  
Selection Of

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has an enormous role to both military and civilian missions. However, a short range endurance of current UAV system affects the life expediency, data monitoring, and output performance of a mission. This is due to having UAVs that are dependent on batteries. The weight of the battery and low temperature environment has undoubtedly been the main cause for the poor UAV performance. In spite of its prolific improvement in UAV system, the endurance permissible is between 45 minutes to 4 hours. Therefore, this situation makes battery no longer attractive to be widely used for UAV. Lately attention has been focused on the use of solar cell in UAV in replacement to battery as its power system. Nevertheless, current solar cells characteristic and efficiency is insufficient to sustain a long endurance flight. This is due to failure to identify an appropriate selection of material and parts in designing the UAVs solar augmented power module system. Therefore, comprehensive work on the solar power system and its integration is essential for an excellent UAV performance. Thus, a research work has been done to studies on the design of a solar and battery power system for an electric UAV. Subsequently, a small solar powered electric UAV has been developed. As a result, the UAVs specification, layout and systems description are presented extensively in this paper. This UAV has enabled an understanding how the solar augmented system has enhanced the endurance performance the electric UAV to almost 24 hours. Moreover, this UAV has 5 successfully flight up till date with useful data that predicted this UAV aerodynamic characteristic.

Design of a Small Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hartney
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered

Joint Mechanical Design and Flight Control Optimization of a Nature-Inspired Unmanned Aerial Vehicle via Collaborative Co-Evolution

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 2044-2051
Author(s):  
Danial Sufiyan ◽  
Luke Soe Thura Win ◽  
Shane Kyi Hla Win ◽  
Gim Song Soh ◽  
Shaohui Foong
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Control Optimization ◽  
Aerial Vehicle

A fuel cell/battery hybrid power system for an unmanned aerial vehicle

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 2379-2385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheolnam Yang ◽  
Sungmo Moon ◽  
Yangdo Kim
Keyword(s):  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Power System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Hybrid Power System ◽  
Hybrid Power ◽  
Aerial Vehicle

scholarly journals Design of a Hand-Launched Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) System for Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhao ◽  
Zhou Zhou ◽  
Xiaoping Zhu ◽  
An Guo
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperature ◽  
Conceptual Design ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Structure Design ◽  
Control Law ◽  
Trajectory Tracking Control ◽  
Plateau Area ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Solar Powered

This paper describes our work on a small, hand-launched, solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) suitable for low temperatures and high altitudes, which has the perpetual flight potential for conservation missions for rare animals in the plateau area in winter. Firstly, the conceptual design method of a small, solar-powered UAV based on energy balance is proposed, which is suitable for flight in high-altitude and low-temperature area. The solar irradiance model, which can reflect the geographical location and time, was used. Based on the low-temperature discharge test of the battery, a battery weight model considering the influence of low temperature on the battery performance was proposed. Secondly, this paper introduces the detailed design of solar UAV for plateau area, including layout design, structure design, load, and avionics. To increase the proportion of solar cells covered, the ailerons were removed and a rudder was used to control both roll and yaw. Then, the dynamics model of an aileron-free layout UAV was developed, and the differences in maneuverability and stability of aileron-free UAV in plateau and plain areas were analyzed. The control law and trajectory tracking control law were designed for the aileron-free UAV. Finally, the flight test was conducted in Qiangtang, Tibet, at an altitude of 4500 m, China’s first solar-powered UAV to take off and land above 4500 m on the plateau in winter (−30 °C). The test data showed the success of the scheme, validated the conceptual design method and the success of the control system for aileron-free UAV, and analyzed the feasibility of perpetual flight carrying different loads according to the flight energy consumption data.

scholarly journals 1A2-O11 Development and Flight Control of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle That Has a Vertical Canard(Aerial Robot and Mechatronics)

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 (0) ◽  
pp. _1A2-O11_1-_1A2-O11_4
Author(s):  
Kenta Go ◽  
Atsushi KONNO ◽  
Takaaki MATSUMOTO ◽  
Atsushi OOSEDO ◽  
Kouji MASUKO ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Aerial Robot ◽  
Aerial Vehicle
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