DEVELOPMENT OF PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SYSTEM FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV)
Keywords:
photovoltaic power system, solar powered, UAVAbstract
Over the past few years, interest in solar powered UAV has rapidly expanded across commercial, industrial, as well as governmental domains. This paper presents the development of photovoltaic power system for solar powered UAV. The purpose of this study is to develop a set of methodology for photovoltaic (PV) power system design on UAV. The study also perform parametric analysis and performance data collection on PV power system. The PV power system developed in this study
is for fixed wing UAV with maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) of less than 1.2kg. First, solar simulator is built in order to provide a controlled test condition for the execution of experiment. The irradiance data at Skudai area (1.534N and 103.659E) is collected as well and the irradiance
curve is plotted. After encapsulation and soldering of PV cells, experiment to study the currentvoltage (I-V) characteristics of PV cells is carried out, where maximum power generated from PV power system can be predicted from the I-V curve. The power generated should be able to maintain
a steady flight of UAV. However, the first version of PV power system has failed to meet the requirement, thus another improved design of PV power system is proposed. Performance of the improved design has been analysed, where the results proved that the improved design of PV power
system able to provide enough power supply for steady cruise of solar-powered UAV.
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