Extending flight endurance of electric unmanned aerial vehicles through photovoltaic system integration

Bertoli, Gustavo de Carvalho; Pacheco, Gefeson Mendes; Adabo, Geraldo José

doi:10.1109/icrera.2015.7418556

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…A solar cell is an electronic device that generates electricity when exposed to sunlight. Its working principle begins with the photon absorption by the semiconductor, and then electrons are excited out of their orbit, participating in conduction, which generates electricity [5,6]. PVC technologies are classified into three generations based on the materials used in their manufacturing.…”

Section: Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…PVC technologies are classified into three generations based on the materials used in their manufacturing. The first generation consists of silicon wafer-based PVCs, characterised by high efficiency (<30%) and long life cycles (25-30 years); however, excessive size is a significant drawback for UAV applications [5,6].…”

Section: Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These thin-film PVCs are produced through highly energetically demanding vacuum processes and are based on scarce materials such as amorphous-Si (a-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and gallium arsenide (GaAs). First, a-Si is a nontoxic material with silicon atoms randomly distributed within the structure of the cell [5][6][7]. Its highest reported power conversion efficiency (PCE) was 14%.…”

Section: Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Experimental Study to Increase the Autonomy of a UAV by Incorporating Solar Cells

Sampaio Saloio,

Cruz,

Coelho

et al. 2023

Vehicles

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Solar energy is recognized as an alternative to combustion engines to reduce the environmental impact and increase the endurance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This work aims to present a project for a solar UAV to contribute to the mission of the Air Force Academy Research Center and test the energy system on the ground. To achieve this study’s objectives, a literature review on photovoltaic cells (PVCs), batteries, and maximum power point tracking algorithms was conducted. The most appropriate airframe and wing designs for this particular type of flight are then investigated. Following that, the project requirements and mission profile were defined, and the copper indium gallium selenide eFilm cells, a solar power management system (SPMS), avionics, and payload required for the mission were chosen based on them. A methodology for ground testing of solar systems was created and used, achieving an endurance of 7 h and 34 min on an April day. The SPMS achieved an efficiency of around 96%, while PVCs ranged from 11.3 to 14.1%.

show abstract

Section: Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Experimental Study to Increase the Autonomy of a UAV by Incorporating Solar Cells

Sampaio Saloio,

Cruz,

Coelho

et al. 2023

Vehicles

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Gustavo de Carvalho Bertoli also used this approach in his research about "Extending Flight Endurance Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles through Photovoltaic System Integration". They reported that to estimate the increased endurance of the battery-powered UAV adapted with photovoltaic cells, they derived the Peukert Law equation in conjunction with the power provided by the solar cells, and this approach shows high accuracy [2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endurance estimation in hovering flight based on battery power requested on quadcopter UAV

Octonius¹,

Ruseno²

2022

Angkasa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this era, Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) application is growing. However, there are still weaknesses in using UAVs to carry out certain missions. One of the major problems is the energy and power required to use the UAV which impacts the endurance of a UAV can hover. This study focuses on calculating the endurance and finding which configuration will produce the optimal endurance. It starts by calculating the thrust of a propeller using blade element theory which ends in calculating endurance. Using four different types of propellers, an integral formulation was devised for a constant–power battery discharge process to predict the hovering time. The result shows that APC 1238 combined with battery 6S will produce the longest endurance. The methodology is applicable for a custom quadcopter UAV.

show abstract

“…The persistent progress in the aviation powertrain systems has resulted in a remotely piloted UAV that has been used in a wide range of increasing applications like communications, surveillance, investigations, weather broadcasting, and conducting military operations [21,22]. However, UAV experiences from numerous difficulties, its continuous need for fossil fuel while flying to supply the combustion engine for aircraft propulsion and low flight endurance, short flight time and low flight endurance [23]. Thus, solar powered UAV has received substantial extent of attention from researchers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle With Active Output Filter Under Non-Linear Load Conditions

Ahmed

Alhuwaishel

2021

IEEE Access

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents a new electric powertrain for solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The proposed system structure is based on the development of the power supply system for both the Solong and Zyphyr aircraft models. The proposed UAV model incorporates the Zyphry UAV use of an AC line feeder instead of DC power lines to power the propellers. The proposed powertrain includes solar panels, an energy management system based on lithium sulfide battery, inverter, AC bus-line and active output filter (AOF). AOF topology is composed of a high switching frequency H-bridge inverter with a reduced size LC filter. The utilization of AOF system reduces the size and weight of the power transmission system and significantly improves its conversion efficiency by introducing an emulated series resistance with the Hbridge stage to ensure high quality pure sinusoidal waveform of the line voltage. This emulated series resistance produces an injected voltage across it to diminish unwanted harmonics created from the non-linear load. A simulation model and experimental setup are created to simulate the proposed system and the system is tested under non-linear load condition with closed-loop feed-back control strategy. The obtained simulation and experimental results demonstrate that high-quality sinusoidal line voltage waveforms can be obtained using the active resistance compensation technique with total harmonic distortion factor less than 3%. Moreover, power losses analysis and conversion efficiency calculation of the proposed system are performed and compared with that of the conventional three-phase PWM inverter, which proved that the power losses are reduced by 31%.

show abstract

Extending flight endurance of electric unmanned aerial vehicles through photovoltaic system integration

Cited by 9 publications

References 6 publications

Experimental Study to Increase the Autonomy of a UAV by Incorporating Solar Cells

Experimental Study to Increase the Autonomy of a UAV by Incorporating Solar Cells

Endurance estimation in hovering flight based on battery power requested on quadcopter UAV

Solar Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle With Active Output Filter Under Non-Linear Load Conditions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About