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

Chu, Yauhei; Ho, Chunleung; Lee, Jo Jo; Li, Boyang

doi:10.3390/drones5020044

Cited by 42 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…In maximizing UAV's potential, using low-cost components can be considered; programmable microprocessors can connect the solar power source and a battery power source. In addition, there should be more investigation on auto-pilot settings such as airspeed, altitude, and turning radius to optimize flight endurance [230].…”

Section: Challenges and Future Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Unmanned System Technologies with Its Application to Aquaculture Farm Monitoring and Management

Ubina

Cheng

2022

Drones

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This paper aims to provide an overview of the capabilities of unmanned systems to monitor and manage aquaculture farms that support precision aquaculture using the Internet of Things. The locations of aquaculture farms are diverse, which is a big challenge on accessibility. For offshore fish cages, there is a difficulty and risk in the continuous monitoring considering the presence of waves, water currents, and other underwater environmental factors. Aquaculture farm management and surveillance operations require collecting data on water quality, water pollutants, water temperature, fish behavior, and current/wave velocity, which requires tremendous labor cost, and effort. Unmanned vehicle technologies provide greater efficiency and accuracy to execute these functions. They are even capable of cage detection and illegal fishing surveillance when equipped with sensors and other technologies. Additionally, to provide a more large-scale scope, this document explores the capacity of unmanned vehicles as a communication gateway to facilitate offshore cages equipped with robust, low-cost sensors capable of underwater and in-air wireless connectivity. The capabilities of existing commercial systems, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence combined with drones are also presented to provide a precise aquaculture framework.

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Section: Challenges and Future Trendsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Unmanned System Technologies with Its Application to Aquaculture Farm Monitoring and Management

Ubina

Cheng

2022

Drones

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“…One of the most convenient methods to extend the autonomy of electrically propelled UAVs is to install photovoltaic cells on the wings and/or fuselage and to use the electrical power generated by these cells to charge the batteries. There have been numerous attempts to install photovoltaic cells on UAV wings [2][3][4][5]. The main issues that have been encountered in all of these attempts are generated by the efficiency and the reliability of the photovoltaic cells.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

et al. 2021

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There have been large developments in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) industry over the last decade. Although UAV development was mainly for military related use in the beginning and despite there being fear surrounding the release of this technology to the open market for quite a long time, nowadays, there are a variety of applications where UAVs are used extensively, such as in agriculture, infrastructure inspection and monitoring, mobile retranslation relays for communications, etc. One of the weaknesses of electrically propelled UAVs is flight autonomy; there is often a difficult trade-of between the weight of the payload, batteries, and surface to be surveyed that is necessary to determine. There have been many attempts to use photovoltaic cells to increase the flight time for UAVs; however, a reliable solution has not yet been developed. The present paper presents improvements that have been conducted to extend the autonomy of electrically derived UAVs: instead of gluing photovoltaic cells on the wings, the new approach embeds the solar cells into the wing structure as well as develops a new wing that is significantly lighter to compensate for the weight added by the photovoltaic cells. It was demonstrated that by using this approach, a 33% increase in the flight time can be achieved with only one modified wing in a prototype vehicle.

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“…In particular, energizing portable devices, lighting applications in open areas, traffic lighting, smart bus stops, robotic applications, backpacks, power banks, solar tree, feeding low power auxiliary equipment of electric vehicles, tent applications, calculator applications with very low power requirements and photovoltaic-based energy supply in wearable devices such as wristwatches become widespread. There are different studies in the literature that include such applications [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the use of photovoltaic-based energy sources in unmanned aerial vehicles, significant savings in battery capacity and weight can be achieved. In [7], a solar-powered design was proposed to increase the flight time in unmanned aerial vehicles. As a result, 22.5% of battery capacity has been saved.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prototype development of a solar-powered backpack for camping applications

Başoğlu

ÜSTEK

2021

Gazi Üniversitesi Fen Bilimleri Dergisi Part C: Tasarım Ve Teknoloji

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Solar energy, the use and importance of which is increasing day by day, stands out among renewable energy sources with many applications. In this study, the application of solar powered orthopedic back support backpack has been presented with a special photovoltaic module structure. The 2x12W photovoltaic panel system has been mounted on the backpack with a rail arrangement and optional use is provided according to the user's preference. Since there will be additional equipment in the solar self-energized backpack compared to a normal bag, the sections where the items should be put in the bag according to their weight should be specified to the user. Considering the center of gravity of the backpack, pockets have been made in the parts where heavy components will be fixed, and a 12V 7Ah lead acid battery is mounted in this section. There is a 5V -1A USB output at the system output and a modified sinus inverter for AC loads. In addition, prototype production was carried out for the realized design, and a backpack was produced, which can be used for charging mobile phones and feeding simple AC loads such as heaters, coolers and shavers. It is thought that this bag will be an attractive product for camping applications and travellers traveling by hitchhiking.

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

Cited by 42 publications

References 13 publications

A Review of Unmanned System Technologies with Its Application to Aquaculture Farm Monitoring and Management

A Review of Unmanned System Technologies with Its Application to Aquaculture Farm Monitoring and Management

Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Prototype development of a solar-powered backpack for camping applications

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