Power System Optimization for Electric Hybrid Unmanned Drone

초록

For drones to be used for industrial or agricultural applications, it is necessary to increase the payload and endurance. Currently, the payload and endurance are limited by the battery technology for electric powered drones. In addition, charging or replacing the batteries may not be a practical solution at the field that requires near continuous operation. In this paper, a procedure to optimize the power system of an electric hybrid drone that consists of an internal combustion engine, a generator, a battery, and electric motors is presented. The example drone for crop dusting is sized for easy transportation with a maximum takeoff weight of 200 kg. The two main rotors that are mechanically connected to the internal combustion engine provides most of the lift. The drone is controled by four electric motors that are driven by the generator. By analyzing the flow of the energy, a methodology to select the optimum propeller and motor among the commercially available models is described. Then, a procedure of finding the optimum operational condition along with the proper gear reduction ratios for the internal combustion engine based on the test data is presented. © 2019 The Korean Society for Aeronautical and Space Sciences.

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