I.

INTRODUCTION

Design of a Solar Power Management System for an Experimental UAV

JAW-KUEN SHIAU, Member, IEEE DER-MING MA PIN-YING YANG GENG-FENG WANG JHIJ HUA GONG Tamkang University

The design of a solar power management system (SPMS) for an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is summarized. The system will provide power required for the on-board electronic systems on the UAV. The power management system mainly consists of the maximum power point tracking (MPPT), the battery management, and the power conversion stages. The MPPT stage attempts to obtain the maximum power available from the solar cell panels. The battery management stage monitors and controls the charge and discharge processes of the Li-Ion polymer battery modules. The last stage is for power conversion that consists of dc/dc synchronous buck converters to generate +5 V and +12 V powers for the on-board computers and other electronic circuitries.

Manuscript received January 24, 2007; revised February 18 and July 10, 2008; released for publication August 5, 2008. IEEE Log No. T-AES/45/4/935097. Refereeing of this contribution was handled by W. Polivka. This research was supported by the National Science Council, Taiwan, Republic of China, under Grant NSC94-2212-E-032-005. Authors current addresses: J-K. Shiau, D-M. Ma, P-Y. Yang, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, Tamkang University, 151 Ying-Chuan Road, Tamsui, 25137 Taiwan, E-mail: (shiauj@mail.tku.edu.tw); G-F. Wang, Formosa Plastic Associate Company, Taiwan; J-H. Gong, Lite-ON Technology Corporation Company, Taipei, Taiwan.

c 2009 IEEE 0018-9251/09/$26.00 1350

Solar power, without a doubt, is the cleanest energy in the world. Usages of solar energy are widespread in industry, commercial, and military applications [15]. It will gradually become one of the primary energy supply resources in the future. This paper discusses the design of a solar power management system (SPMS) for an experimental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Solar-powered UAV possesses broad research value for technology development and commercial applications. A solar-powered UAV could in principle stay overhead indefinitely as long as it had a proper energy-storage system to keep it flying at night. The design of the power management system for such aircraft is challenging due to possible rapid attitude changes during maneuvers. The solar power is not an ideal energy source. The solar cell panels can only generate power at certain times of the day. So the most important consideration for using the solar power is to maximize the utility of the solar power while it is available. To ensure that the maximum available power is received from the solar panel, a certain type of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm [611] is usually incorporated into the SPMS. A comparative study of MPPT algorithms that could be easily implemented in a low-cost microcontroller is reported in [12]. The incremental conductance algorithm [6] can efficiently track the maximum power point under rapidly changing atmospheric conditions. The efficiency of the incremental conductance algorithm, as reported in [12], can be in excess of 97%. In this research, we implement the incremental conductance algorithm and use the natural sunlight as the irradiance source to conduct the MPPT test. Since solar cells can only generate power at certain times of the day, a storage element is required in all solar power systems. The most common form of the energy storage for the stand alone solar power system is battery technology. The basic functions of the battery management are to control the charge/discharge of the battery, to protect the battery from damage, to prolong the life of the battery, and to maintain the battery in a state to fulfill the functional requirements. Battery management systems for a solar power system with lead acid battery are discussed in [13], [14]. Although the lead acid is widely used in the industry, it is not considered to be suitable for UAV application when weight and volumetric capacity are taken into account. The lithium-ion polymer battery is selected for this UAV application study. The dynamic lithium-ion battery models have been extensively studied recently as reported in [15], [16] and the references therein. Many applications require knowledge of the state of charge (SOC) [17] of the battery for providing
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the user with an indication of the capacity left in the battery. This is important for optimizing the charging process. Voltage and current based SOC estimation can provide a rough indication of the SOC of a battery, but for more precision, other factors such as amplitude of the discharging current, age of the battery, environment factors, and operating history of the battery must be taken into account. Correction for these factors can only be accomplished with complex software by building a battery model to replicate the battery characteristics. In [17] a charge measurement circuit is designed to improve the SOC estimation. It shows that the accuracy of the required charge flow measurements can be greatly improved by using a voltage to frequency converter in conjunction with a digital counter to integrate the measured battery current. In many applications, multi-cell battery chains are required to provide a higher operation voltage or power. A charge equalization technique that utilizes a simple isolated dc/dc converter with a capacitive output filter along with a multi-winding transformer is proposed in [18]. In [19] a battery management system consists of a number of smart battery modules each of which provides battery equalization, monitoring, and battery protection to a string of battery cells. Complex charge equalization circuitries are not considered to be suitable for this particular application due to space, weight, and power consumption considerations. The battery management system proposed in this design is different from those presented in [13], [14], and [19]. It includes an auto-ranging power converter, a charge controller, and lithium battery modules. The microcontroller-based charge controller is designed to control the auto-ranging power converter to maximize the utility of the solar power. Two battery modules with one serving as the charging module and the other as the discharging module are used in this design. In this research, we focus on the design evaluation of a SPMS for an experimental UAV application. The battery management has to handle the rapid voltage variations due to attitude changes during maneuvers. To gain the quantitative idea of power variations on rapid changing of the sunlight incident angle, a servo-motor-driven experimental test bed is developed to support the evaluation. Test results on the voltage and power variations are presented and discussed. The test results provide a good reference for the sizing, power, weight, optimal flight path design, and performance consideration for the development of a fully solar powered UAV. Design and function validation of an SPMS are the primary purpose of this research. Therefore, the obtained solar power is used to power some certain on-board computers only. Power required for the propulsion and control systems is not included in the design. A much larger solar cell panel will be needed

Fig. 1. Configuration of SPMS.

Fig. 2. Prototype of SPMS.

to power the complete system. The SPMS considered in this research consists of three stages. The first stage is the solar cell panels and the maximum power tracker. The second stage is the battery management system. The last stage is the power conversion stage that includes dc/dc synchronous buck power converters [20] to provide reliable +5 V and +12 V power sources for on-board electronic systems. II. SYSTEM OVERVIEW

The SPMS is designed to obtain electric energy from the solar system and to make the required power available for the on-board computers and other electronic circuitries for an experimental UAV. The overall system structure is depicted in Fig. 1. The function validated prototype of the system is shown in Fig. 2. In this research, we use mono-crystalline solar cells as the power source. To accommodate the aircraft configuration, the solar cell panels are divided into three panels, namely left wing, right wing, and fuselage panels. Pictures of these solar cell panels are shown in Fig. 3. Under a standard test condition, the solar panels will generate a maximum power of up to around 57.2 W. The maximum power point voltage and current are around 30 V and 1.91 A, respectively. The electric characteristics of each panel are list in Tables IIII. As shown in Fig. 1, the SPMS system is divided into three stages. The first stage, MPPT, attempts to increase the efficiency of the solar cells to obtain the maximum power available from the solar cell panels. The second stage, battery management, monitors and controls the energy storage and delivery of the solar power drawn from the solar cell panels. The third stage, power conversion, converts input voltage to +5 V and +12 V for the on-board electronics. The functional considerations and designs for each stage are discussed in the following sections.
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Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit of solar cell.

nonlinear device and can be represented as a current source model as shown in Fig. 4 [21]. Where Iph is the equivalent current source, Rsh and Rs are the equivalent shunt and series resistance of the material, and D is the P-N junction diode. The shunt resistance Rsh is much greater than the series resistance Rs . Therefore, the output current IL can be represented as [22] qV L IL = Iph ID = Iph IO exp 1 (1) KTA
Fig. 3. Left wing panel (top), fuselage panel (center), right wing panel (bottom). TABLE I Left Wing Panel Typical peak power Voltage at peak power Current at peak power Short-circuit current Open-circuit voltage 23.23 30.08 0.772 0.839 37.66 W V A A V

where q is the charge of an electron, K is the Boltzmanns constant, A is the ideality factor of the P-N junction, T is the solar cell temperature ( K), and Io is the reverse saturation current. The reverse saturation current is [22] 3 qEGAP 1 1 T Io = Irr exp (2) T KT T T r r where T r is the reference temperature, Irr is the saturation current at T r , EGAP is the band-gap energy of the semiconductor used in the solar cell. The light generated current source Iph is Iph = [Isso + Ki (T T r )] Si 100 (3)

TABLE II Right Wing Panel Typical peak power Voltage at peak power Current at peak power Short-circuit current Open-circuit voltage 24.29 30.10 0.807 0.872 37.78 W V A A V

TABLE III Fuselage Panel Typical peak power Voltage at peak power Current at peak power Short-circuit current Open-circuit voltage 9.686 29.95 0.323 0.341 37.84 W V A A V

where Isso is the short-circuit current at reference temperature, Ki is the short-circuit current temperature coefficient, Si is the insolation in mW/cm2 . So the output power from the solar cell can be expressed as qV L P = IL V 1 : (4) L = Iph V L Io V L exp KTA Output current and power at different insolations and different temperatures for this particular solar power panel are shown in Fig. 5. Each curve has a maximum power point as indicated in Fig. 5, which is the optimal operating point for the efficient use of the solar cells at that particular operating condition. In order to efficiently use the solar cells, we attempt to force the solar cells to operate at the maximum power point through some mechanism called the MPPT. To clearly explain the operation of the MPPT mechanism, we pick an operating curve and redraw the characteristic curve in Fig. 6. Cleary, at maximum power point P=V = 0. We decrease the output voltage if P=V < 0, and increase output voltage while P=V > 0.
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III. MAXIMUM POWER POINT TRACKING The electric power generated from the solar cells depends on the temperature and the solar radiation conditions and the load electric characteristics. MPPT is often used in photovoltaic systems to maximize the solar panel output power, irrespective of the temperature and irradiation conditions and of the load electrical characteristics. The solar cell is a
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Fig. 8. MOSFET driver.

Fig. 5. Current and power characteristics of solar cell panels.

Fig. 9. Functional block diagram of battery management system.

Fig. 6. Characteristic curve of solar cell.

and limiting the drain-source voltage of the switching transistor, the MOSFET driver circuit proposed in [23] is adapted for this design. The driver circuit is shown in Fig. 8. This driver circuit is also used in the second stage for battery management. IV. BATTERY MANAGEMENT The battery management system monitors and controls the storage and delivery of the energy drawn from the solar panels. The system block diagram of the battery management system is shown in Fig. 9. The system consists of three major subsystems, namely the lithium battery modules, an auto-ranging power converter, and a charge controller. The input power of the battery management system comes from the output of the MPPT system. The output of the battery management system supplies the required power to the power conversion system (the last stage of the power management system) to provide all the required power for the on-board computers and other electronic circuitries. The battery modules selected in this system are Lithium ion (Li-Ion) polymer rechargeable battery (HECELL company, battery model: H6849D5-4800 mAh). A battery submodule consists of three battery cells, the nominal voltage is 11.1 V. The battery management system contains two battery modules. Each module consists of four submodules, arranged as shown in Fig. 10. It has a nominal voltage
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Fig. 7. MPPT system.

The MPPT system consists of a pulsewidth modulator (PWM), a MOSFET driver, a dc/dc buck power converter, and a micro-controller (PIC18F452 in this design). The block diagram of the MPPT system is shown in Fig. 7. The main idea is to continuously adjust the voltage at the load terminal by controlling the duty cycle of the PWM regulator. A commonly used MPPT algorithm includes perturbation and observation method [8], incremental conductance technique [6, 9], and fuzzy logics [7, 10, 11]. In this design, we use the incremental conductance technique to implement the MTTP function. Development of the MPPT algorithm is not within the scope of our design. We are not attempting to compare the differences among the MPPT algorithms. In order to provide sufficient current needed for controlling the switching transistor

SHIAU ET AL.: DESIGN OF A SOLAR POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR AN EXPERIMENTAL UAV

Fig. 10. Construction of battery module. Fig. 12. Charging/discharging circuitry for Li-ion battery.

of 22.2 V with 9600 mAh capability. The battery modules and relay control structure are depicted in Fig. 11. Initially, batteries 58 form as the discharging module while batteries 14 serve as the charging module. As shown in Fig. 11, to form the discharge module, the 4-pole relay S10 is closed and relays S5 , S6 , S7 , and S8 are open. Fig. 12 is the charging and discharging control circuitry for the Li-ion batteries. In charging the Li-ion battery, the battery is charged at a constant current until the battery voltage reaches the maximum voltage limit. The circuit then switches to voltage regulation, allowing the current to taper to lower values. Accurate voltage regulation is necessary to put the maximum safe charge into the battery. In constant current mode, we keep the voltage V 1 at a constant voltage through controlling the pulsewidth of the PWM regulator in the auto-ranging power converter. We adjust the pulsewidth of the PWM regulator to maintain V 2 at a constant level while in constant voltage mode. To charge submodule 1, we close the relay S1 with relays S2 and S9 open. On the other hand, we need to close the relay S2 and open the relays S1 and S9 to charge the battery submodule 2. The constant current/constant voltage charging waveform is shown in Fig. 13. In discharging mode, we close the relay S9 and open the relays S1 and S2 . The discharge waveform is shown in Fig. 14. The control circuitry for maintaining the constant voltage or constant current charging for a particular battery submodule is shown in Fig. 15. The charge current for constant current charging mode is V R2 + R3 F I= : (5) RS R1 + R2 + R3

Fig. 13. Constant current/constant voltage charging waveform.

Fig. 14. Li-ion battery discharging waveform.

The resistance of RS connected to the battery for constant current control is 0:1 . The voltage V F to the charge controller for constant current regulation

Fig. 11. Li-ion battery modules and relay control structure. 1354 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS VOL. 45, NO. 4 OCTOBER 2009

Fig. 15. Constant current/voltage control circuitry.

is maintained at 2.5 V through the charge controller and the PWM regulation loop. If R1 = 100 k , R2 = 1:96 k , and R3 = 2:2 k are selected, the charge current I in (5) is maintained at 1 A. There are a total of 8 battery submodules in the system. The 8-1 multiplexer is used to select the battery to charge. The auto-ranging power converter consists of a dc/dc power converter and a charge regulator. The power converter selected in this system is a buck type power converter, the same as the one for the MPPT stage, due to the fact that most of the time the voltage at the output of the MTTP stage is higher than the required charge voltage. The charge regulator is a microcontroller-controlled PWM regulator. The charge voltage at the output of the power converter is controlled by continuously adjusting the duty cycle of the PWM pulse. It should be noted that even most of the time the voltage at the input to the converter is higher than the battery charge voltage (12.6 V in this case), in some cases, such as when sunlight to the solar panel is shaded or the incident angle is too high, the voltage might be lower than the required charge voltage. There are several ways to cope with this issue. The simplest way is to terminate the charging process once the input voltage is down below a predetermined threshold, 14 V for instance. This, however, leads to a waste of the solar power. The better approach is to put a low voltage constraint in the MPPT algorithm. That is, maintain the MPPT output voltage at 14 V if it is lower than this limit. We propose that both approaches should be implemented. Yet another approach would be to design a buck-boost type power converter to deal with the voltage variations. To provide auto-ranging capability for battery charging, the buck-boost converter would not be just providing the regulation function only; it would be a micro-processor controlled power converter. Micro-processor controlled buck-boost power converter is more complicated than the buck type converter. However, it is worth implementing the buck-boost converter to provide the auto-ranging capability for a larger solar power system to maximize the utility of the solar power. The primary function of the charger controller is to perform the monitoring and charge/discharge

control of the batteries. The Microchip PIC18F4515 microcontroller is selected to do the required tasks. The charge controller is able to measure the voltage and current of each individual battery submodule. The charge controller continuously monitors the operating condition of the batteries to prevent them from becoming overstressed. The constant current followed by constant voltage scheme is implemented for the charging process. To charge a battery, the voltage of the battery is checked first. This is the easiest way to determine the SOC if the current has remained at zero long enough for the voltage to stabilize. If the voltage is within the rechargeable range, greater than 9 V and less than 12.6 V in this design, constant current charging is initiated. The constant voltage charging will be engaged once the charge voltage reaches 12.6 V. Note that there is a total voltage drop of about 0.3 V across the relay and the current sensing resistor RS . The constant voltage charging is a slow charging process. The charging current during the constant voltage mode is much smaller than the charging current during the constant current period. The voltage drops across the relay and RS are insignificant in the constant voltage charging state due to small charging current. The charging process will be terminated when the battery voltage reaches the voltage limit 12.6 V. The terminal voltage of the discharging module is checked periodically to ensure the health of the batteries. Since two battery submodules are connected in series to provide the required power for the load, the discharging voltage is kept at about 22.2 V. This voltage can be used as an indication of the discharging state of the battery and can be used to determine the cutoff point. To avoid fully discharging the battery cells, a discharge warning is set when the voltage reduces 19 V. At this point, we exchange the charging and the discharging battery modules to continue to supply the required power. Space and weight are one of the strict limitations for designing a power management system for UAV application. Complex charge equalization circuitries which usually involve switches, current sensors, transformers, dc/dc converters, etc., are not implemented in this particular design due to space, weight, and power consumption considerations. However, it should be taken into consideration when designing a fully solar powered UAV with much larger solar cell panels and equipment installation space. V. POWER CONVERSION

The power conversion system converts the voltage level from 22.2 V at the battery end to +5 V and +12 V for providing the required power to the on-board computers and all other electronic circuitries. In particular, the +12 V power source is used to drive the relay circuitries in the battery management
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Fig. 16. Synchronous buck power converter.

Fig. 19. MPPT experiment setup.

Fig. 17. (a) Q1 on, Q2 off. (b) Q2 on, Q1 off.

Fig. 18. Experimental test bed.

system. The simplified functional block diagram of the synchronous buck converter used in this design is shown in Fig. 16. It uses two N-type MOSFETs Q1 and Q2 to control the energy flow from source to the load. Synchronous buck controller used in this design is TPS40055 [24]. Detail design guidelines can be found in the data sheets. The simplified circuit for the inductor charging cycle is shown in Fig. 17(a). In this state, the MOSFET Q1 is conducted and Q2 is turned off. In inductor discharging state, the operation is reversed as shown in Fig. 17(b). Stability analysis and feedback controller design for this synchronous buck power converter is quite standard and is not addressed further in this paper. For detail design procedures please refer to [24]. In this system, two converters are designed for +5 V and +12 V power sources. VI. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS In order to evaluate the design of power acquiring from the solar cells and obtain some quantitative idea of power variations on rapid changing of the incident angle of the sunlight, a servo-motor-driven experimental test bed is developed to support the evaluation. The block diagram of the experimental test bed is shown in Fig. 18. We control the sunlight incident angle by rotating the test bed. During testing, we record the rotating angle of the test bed and voltage and current drawn from the solar cells.
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Fig. 20. Test results on 04/22/2006 (at 11:50).

Fig. 21. Test results on 04/22/2006 (at 12:15).

The physical setup for the MPPT experiment is shown in Fig. 19. The results of the experiment conducted on 22 April 2006 at Tamkang University are shown in Figs. 20 and 21. The results show the history of the measured voltage, current, power, and incident angle. In this work, MPPT tests were conducted with the incremental conductance MPPT
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algorithm using natural sunlight as the irradiance source. The efficiency of the incremental conductance algorithm has been reported to be as high as 89.9% and 97.4% in [6] and [12], respectively. Temperature measured on the solar cell panel is about 50 C while the outdoor air temperature is 27 C. Fig. 20 shows the evolution of the MPPT with partial shading of the solar cell panel. Fig. 21 shows the results of the rapid changes of the power when it suddenly (in about 1 min) became clouded. Figs. 2224 show the experimental results that were conducted on September 1, 2006; the sky is relatively clear with 32 C outdoor air temperature. The temperature measured on the solar cell panel is about 70 C. The power we obtained is lower than the power that we got at the previous experiment due to panel temperature changes. In this experiment, we also vary the incident angle (Fig. 23) of the sunlight by rotating the solar cell panel up to 45 deg with an increment of 5 deg and stay at the same position for 10 s. Three different loads (5 , 10 , and 15 ) are used to conduct the test. The results show that the solar power changes with the incident angle correctly. To verify the extraction of the maximum power, we take the power at zero degree incident angles as the reference and times cos with varying according to the experiment setup to generate a simulated maximum power. Note that we assume the sunlight irradiance keeps the same during the experimental cycle (about 6 min). Then we compare this simulated maximum power to the measured maximum power. The results show that the system still tracks the maximum power point quite well as shown in Fig. 24. In Fig. 24, PSIM represents the simulated maximum power taking the power at 0 incident angle as the reference then times cos . The sunlight irradiance may vary during the test. In a steady sunlight irradiance condition, as shown in Fig. 24 with 10 load, the maximum power almost perfectly matches the simulated power. The test results show that when the sunlight incident angle varies from 0 to 45 deg, the power drawn from the solar cells depends on the load conditions and can have a reduction of up to some 30%. This implies that the changes of aircraft attitude will directly affect the power obtained from the solar system. This in turn will limit the pitch and roll angles of the aircraft maneuver and must be taken into consideration for optimal flight path design. The test results also provide a good reference for the sizing, power, weight, and performance consideration for the development of a fully solar powered UAV. VII. CONCLUSIONS This paper discusses the design of an SPMS. The system consists of solar power panels shaped to accommodate aircraft configuration, an MPPT system

Fig. 22. Test results on 09/01/2006 (at 13:01).

Fig. 23. Power variations due to changes of sunlight incident angles. (15 load starts from 12:10; 10 load starts from 12:19; 5 load starts from 12:42).

Fig. 24. Comparison of maximum power to simulated maximum power. 1357

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to increase operating efficiency of the solar cells, a battery management system to monitor and control the energy storage and delivery, and a power conversion system to convert the power drawn from the solar system to the using systems. An experiment system for MPPT evaluation is also developed to support the system design. The results will be used to improve the solar powered UAV configuration, propulsion, and performance designs. Designs to incorporate the propulsion power requirement to support the truly solar powered UAV are underway. In the new design, the SPMS will manage the entire power requirement for up to 600 W to support the UAV operation. The power bus structure provided in this paper contains three power conversion stages in cascade. The power efficiency of the overall system is the combination of the efficiency of all of the three stages. This structure is useful for low power applications such as UAV systems where we need to deal with possible rapid changes of atmospheric condition. This structure, however, may not be suitable for high power systems such as satellites power bus structure.
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[23]

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Jaw-Kuen Shiau (M99) received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and electronic engineering from Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan, in 1981 and 1983, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, in 1995. Dr. Shiau had worked in industry and government laboratory on high performance fighter aircraft flight control system design for over 10 years. Since 1997, he has been with the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan. His research interests include robust control, flight control system design, avionics system design and integration for UAV and solar power management system for UAV.

Der-Ming Ma received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in aeronautical engineering from Chung Cheng Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan. In 1988, he received the Ph.D. degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is presently Associate Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tamkang University, Taiwan. He currently works on system design of solar-powered UAV, optimal atmospheric flight trajectories, and guidance, navigation and control.

Pin-Ying Yang received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan, in 2003 and 2007, respectively. His research interests include power electronics, solar power management system, and applications of embedded systems.
SHIAU ET AL.: DESIGN OF A SOLAR POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR AN EXPERIMENTAL UAV 1359

Geng-Feng Wang received the B.S. and M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. He is currently a facilities maintenance engineer at Formosa Plastic Associate Company. His research interests include power electronics, solar power management system, applications of embedded systems, maximum power point tracking, Li-ion battery power management, and power converter systems.

Jhih-Hua Gong (also known as Chih-Hua Kung) received the B.S. degree in automation engineering from National Formosa University, Taiwan. He received the M.S. degree in aerospace engineering from Tamkang University, Taiwan in 2004. Since graduation, he has been working in design of uninterrupted power systems, solar-power inverters, and switching-power supplies. He is currently a senior engineer at Lite-ON Technology Corporation Company, Taiwan. His research interests include power electronics, solar power management system, applications of embedded systems, and wireless sensor networks.
1360 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON AEROSPACE AND ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS VOL. 45, NO. 4 OCTOBER 2009