Surveillance operations to monitor a vast archipelago country such as Indonesia raises many problems, such as the lack of infrastructure for reliable communication. The use of UAV is proposed as alternatives for communication towers to relay communication data. However, battery-powered UAV has a very limited endurance while fossil-fueled UAVs emission contributes to global warming. In this study, a conceptual design of solar-powered UAV is proposed. The UAV is designed to have flight endurance of 24 hours at 2,000-m altitude. The design method for the UAV and solar irradiance estimation is presented in this study. Based on the conceptual design, it is possible to acquire a 24-hour flight duration. The wingspan of the UAV is 12 m with an aspect ratio of 24. To sustain 24-hour flight, solar cells are installed on the wing and take up 83.07% of the wing area.
Conceptual design of low altitude long endurance solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle
THE 8TH INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR ON AEROSPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – ISAST 2020 ; 2020 ; Bogor, Indonesia
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 2366 , 1
2021-09-13
12 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English