Heliplat®: high altitude very-long endurance solar powered UAV for telecommunication and Earth observation applications

Abstract

Research is at present being carried out at the Turin Polytechnic University with the aim of designing an HAVE/UAV (high altitude very-long endurance/unmanned air vehicle). The vehicle should climb to 17-20km by mainly taking advantage of direct Sun radiation and thereafter maintain a level flight; during the night, a fuel cells energy storage system would be used. A computer program has been developed to carry out a parametric study for the platform design. The solar radiation change over one year, the altitude, masses and efficiencies of the solar and fuel cells, and the aerodynamic performances have all been taken into account. The parametric studies have shown how fuel cells and solar cells efficiency and mass have the most influence on the platform dimensions. A wide use of high modulus CFRP has been made in designing the structure in order to minimise the airframe weight. A first configuration of HELIPLAT (HELIos PLATform) was worked out, following a preliminary parametric study. The platform is a monoplane with eight brushless electric motors, a twin-boom tail type with an oversized horizontal stabiliser and two rudders. The co-ordinates at the root and along the wing span as well as the wing planform were optimised to achieve the best efficiency. Several profiles and wing plans have been analysed using the CFD software Xfoil and Vsaero. Several wind-tunnel tests were carried out to compare the analytically predicted performances. A preliminary design of a scale-sized technological demonstrator was completed with the aim of manufacturing a proof-of-concept structure. A FEM analysis was carried by using the Msc/Patran/Nastran code to predict the static and dynamic behaviour of the UAV structure. t , σ 1R c , ε 1R t lamina tension and compression failure stress and strain along fibre direction THE AERONAUTICAL JOURNAL JUNE 2004 277

Design of a High-Altitude Long-Endurance Solar-Powered Unmanned Air Vehicle for Multi-Payload and Operations

“…The BWB solution, compared to the conventional design [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] [6][7][8], has been used for the preliminary design of SHAMPO. Propeller characteristics are obtained using two in-house FORTRAN developed tools.…”

“…The Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Politecnico di Torino (POLITO/DIASP, Scientific Responsible Prof. Romeo) has acquired a great deal of experience, starting from 1994, in the design of solar-powered UAV as high altitude very long endurance platform positioned in the stratosphere at an altitude of 17-20 km and with an endurance of about four months [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Started under a grant from the Italian Space Agency (ASI), a great amount of work was carried out within two European funded projects (HeliPlat w and Capecon) whose final task was to fill the European gap in knowledge and feasibility of such kinds of innovative systems.…”

Fused Deposition Modeling for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): A Review

“…They are considered as a valuable and ubiquitous technology in many applications such as mapping, topography, telecommunications, surveillance, and agricultural management [2][3][4][5][6][7] .…”

Near-Space TOPSAR Large-Scene Full-Aperture Imaging Scheme Based on Two-Step Processing

“…The first one is the near-space platform techniques, the other is the operation mode design and the corresponding imaging scheme. For the first problem, as the potential value of the near space becomes more and more clear, many studies related to the near-space platform have been reported [11,12,13,14,15,16,17]. Near-space platforms can be clarified into three types: near-space airship (NSA), near-space long-endurance low-speed-maneuvering vehicle (NLLV) and near-space short-endurance high-speed-maneuvering vehicle (NSHV), as shown in Figure 1.…”