Design and implementation of a power system for a solar unmanned aerial vehicle

• Main Author: Wilkins, Grant
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Solar aircraft; Drone aircraft; Unmanned aerial vehicle; Solar power system design
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4835

M. Ing. === Solar powered UAV's have gained world wide attention with aircraft such as Solar Impulse and Quinetiq's Zephyr. UAV's in general are becomming increasingly popular, in 2006 80% of all US military ights over Iraq were UAV ights [38]. UAV's are the the most dynamic growth sector in the world aerospace industry having spent $3:4 billion in 2008 and is expected to be $5:8 billion in 2014. Solar Impulse has a budget of $94 million, Quinetiq has been awarded a $44:9 million contract to build 7 zephyrs. NASA has had several solar powered UAV projects. With advancements in solar and battery technologies solar powred UAV's are fast becomming a reality. The disadvantage of projects such as the Solar Impulse, Zephyr, Solong and Sky Sailor is they have extremely large budgets and have access to non commercial and highy specialized Chapter 1 | Problem Statement 10 products. The main purpose of the project is to develop a solar power system using only commercial products which can substancially increase the ight time of a UAV under sunny conditions. The project has several advantages: The project also provides a clean, green energy aspect. Because the energy provided by the solar cells is free and has no carbon footprint, the project is environmentally friendly; The project uses only commercially available products so it can easily be implemented and reproduced; The system developed for the project is not only limited to UAV's/ the project can be used in other applications such as Solar powered cars or robots. Due to the commercial nature of the big 4 solar aircraft information about their solar power systems is not easily available. The work presented here is an acedemic venture and will be freely available The project has many unknowns such as the size of the UAV, power requirements and available components. The research methodolgy used allows the unknowns to be determined using mathematical models and simulations. The models and simulations are further veri ed and altered accordingly to the actual implementation of the system. The project provides a step by step procedure to building a power system for a solar powered UAV. There are several building blocks in the project. Each building block forms a vital part of the system but can also be designed and implemented as a sigle entity. Only once each building block has achieved its own indavidual speci cations will they be integrated together to form the complete system. There are many risks and limitations within the project. The project is dependant on the type of UAV with respect to power requirements. Therefore the power system needs to provide as much solar power as possible to the UAV. If the available solar power is not su cient for level ight, the solar power must supliment the original power supply of the aircraft in a safe manner. There are many dangers when ying a UAV, if the UAV loses control it could potentially injure or even kill a person. Therefore outmost care needs to be taken to mitigate these risks. By the end of the project a solar power supply, capable of powering a UAV, will be delivered. With the given resources and the current state of technology the project should be a success.