In order to promote the development of renewable energy in Thailand, the team has been developed a mall solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle for environmental monitoring application. This paper presents alternative design of this solar-powered UAV by aiming to achieve continuous flight endurance of 6 hours. This project shows the possibility of designing a long endurance solar-powered UAV for environmental monitoring applications. SunPower C60 mono-crystalline silicon PV cells were selected among a wide range of PV cells to be energy converter on board. Design parameter is a variation of wing aspect ratio between 5 and 12. Likewise, number of motor installed onboard was compared to obtain optimal aircraft configuration. The results have shown that hybrid solar powered UAV weight of 5.5 kilogram is predicted for 6-hour non-stop flight operation from 9AM to 3PM under Thailand weather condition. The 4.06-meter wingspan UAV is designed to be able to generate minimum electrical power up to 100 Watts. Two brushless electric motors are to be installed to maintain cruising speed at 8 meter per second by enabling flying against wind speed of 5 meter per second and reaching flight altitude up to 1 kilometer above sea level for environmental monitoring function.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Design and Development of a Small Solar-Powered UAV for Environmental Monitoring Application


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2019-10-01


    Size :

    268819 byte



    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Development of Design Methodology for a Small Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

    Parvathy Rajendran / Howard Smith | DOAJ | 2018

    Free access

    Small solar-powered unmanned aircraft

    LIN CHING-FUH | European Patent Office | 2021

    Free access

    SMALL SOLAR-POWERED UNMANNED AIRCRAFT

    LIN CHING-FUH | European Patent Office | 2019

    Free access


    Development of Solar-Powered Aircraft for Multipurpose Application

    Alvi, O.R. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010