Design and Manufacture of a Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Civilian Surveillance Missions

Abstract

In order to promote the development of renewable energy and take advantage of the new technologies for the benefit of sustainability, both the design and the manufacture methodologies of an experimental solarpowered unmanned aerial vehicle for civilian surveillance applications are presented. Throughout the document, it is provided the historical process around the development of the aircraft. Therefore, in the first part, it is shown the aerodynamic design, which includes the 2-D and 3-D analyses of the wing platform using numerical and experimental methods, the analytical design of the empennage configuration, and the main characteristics of the performance analysis. In addition, major systems and components that characterize the aircraft are described, such as the photovoltaic solar cells configuration as well as the electronics and control system into the unmanned aerial vehicle. Lastly, the modeling for the weights distribution of the components was carried out in a preliminary test using CAD tools. Thus, it was obtained a suitable process for the manufacture of the unmanned aerial vehicle, considering that the purpose of the aircraft is to be as light and aerodynamic as possible to accomplish the mission for which it was created.

Design, Development, and Initial Testing of a Computationally-Intensive, Long-Endurance Solar-Powered Unmanned Aircraft

“…There have been many existing aircraft that use solar panels and are able to sustain flight during all daylight hours, however, lack the ability to perform significant on-board computation beyond automating flight. [6][7][8][9][10] On the other hand, there are several existing aircraft that use solar panels and batteries and are able to perform a variety of on-board tasks; 11,12 however, lack the ability to sustain flight during all daylight hours. This paper describes the design, development and initial testing done to date of the UIUC Solar Flyer, a long-endurance solar-powered unmanned aircraft capable of performing computationally-intensive on-board data processing.…”

On the Issue of Building a Power Supply Complex-Electric Power Consumption of Aircraft

“…Термін служби є важливою характеристикою для акумуляторів і залежить від багатьох внутрішніх і зовнішніх факторів [8]. За рекомендованим варіантом системи електропостачання ЛА (рис.…”

Aircraft three-dimensional hardconstrained trajectory planning using pseudospectral optimization method

“…In the past several years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been significantly taken into consideration due to some their merits such as low fuel consumption, progress in automatic control systems, low complexity and limitation with respect to manned aircrafts, high endurance, and high maneuverability (Khosravian and Maghsoudi 2019). Therefore, UAVs are widely utilized in both military and civil applications, some of which are important for traffic control, reconnaissance and patrol missions (Betancourth et al 2016). Unmanned aerial vehicles are sometimes required to fly at the low altitudes during their missions.…”