Solar Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 2018-2019

1. INTRODUCTION

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, as they have sometimes been referred to, have only been
in service for the last 60 years. UAVs are now an important addition to many countries air
defence system. Modern UAVs have come a long way since the unmanned drones used by the
USAF in The 1940s.These drones were built for spying and reconnaissance, but were not very
efficient due to major flaws in their operating systems. Over the years UAV shave been
developed into the highly sophisticated machines in use today. Modern UAVs are used for many
important application including coast watch, news broadcasting, and the most common
application, defense

UAV History and Timeline

The concept of unmanned aerial vehicles was first used In the American Civil War, when the
North and the South tried to launch balloons With explosive devices that would fall into the other
side’s ammunition depot and explode The Japanese for around a month in World War II also
used this concept, when they tried to Launch balloons with incendiary and other explosives. The
idea was that High-altitude winds would carry them to the United States, where the dropping
bombs would cause panic. Apparently, both these ideas were not effective. The United States did
use a prototype UAV called Operation Aphrodite in World War II. It was an attempt use manned
vehicle. However, a that time, the US did not have the technology to launch or control the
aircraft. Today’s UAVs owe much to the design of the cruise missiles that were used in World
War II by the US and British forces. At the close of World War II, Chance Vought Aircraft, a
company with no missile experience, was contracted to develop new machines.

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2. CLASSIFICATION OF UAV

UAVs are being classified here in their main 4categories: micro/mini UAVs (MAV/mini),
typical UAVs (TUAVs), strategic UAVs, and special task UAVs where only decony and lethal
are currently flying. Micro and Mini UAVs: Micro and mini UAVs comprise the category of the
smallest platforms that also fly at lower altitudes (under 300meters).Designs for this class of
device have focused on creating UAVs that can operate in urban canyons or even inside
buildings, flying along hallways, carrying listening and recording devices, transmitter cameras.

Tactical UAVs
This category includes heavier platforms flying at higher altitudes (from 3,000 to 8,000 meters).
Unlike micro and mini UAVs, which are mostly used for civil/commercial applications, tactical
UAVs primarily support military applications.

Strategic UAVs
HALE platforms are strategic UAVs with a MTOW varying from 2.500 kilograms up to 12.000
kilograms and a maximum flight altitude of about 20,000 meters. They are highly automated,
with take offs and landings being performed automatically. At any time during its mission the
ground control station (GCS) can control the HALE UAV.

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2. SOLAR POWERED UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE

Our basic principle is to use solar power by means of aircraft. And this thing can be done by
solar panels which cover the whole surface of wing. This panels converts radiative energy into
electric energy. This electric energy is used to charge battery which drives electric motor.
Propeller which is mounted on motor shaft produces thrust continuously. Because of this, aircraft
is moved and force is produced on wing by dynamic effect of air which opposes the downward
force of weight. During the night, the only energy available comes from the battery

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3.1 SOLAR AND SOLAR CELL

The cells are made of a type of material known as a semiconductor. Often, they are made of
silicon. The process of making electricity begins when the silicon atoms absorb some light. The
lights energy knocks some electrons out of the atoms. The electrons flow between the two layers.
The flow makes an electric current. The current can leave the cell through the metal contacts and
be used. When light hits a solar cell, much of its energy is wasted. Some light bounces off or
passes through the cell. Some is turned into heat. Only light with the right wavelengths or colors,
is absorbed and then turned into electricity. Needed. For this reason, cells are often linked
together in groups known as solar modules A solar module has a frame that holds the cells. Some
modules are several feet long and wide. They usually can produce up to a few hundred watts of
electricity. If more power is needed, modules can be joined together to form large solar array.

The solar power generator is shown in Fig Modules are sometimes called solar panels. Arrays are
also sometimes called solar panels. Whatever you call a group of solar cells, the fact remains: the
more cells you link together, the more electricity you make. With enough modules, huge
amounts of power are possible. A good example is a new power plant being built at Moura in
Portugal. The first phase of the project has 262,080 solar modules, each with 48 cells. They will
produce up to 46 megawatts of electricity The airplane will be capable of continuous flight over

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days and nights, which makes it suitable for a wide range of applications. Energy- optimal. path
planning and perpetual endurance for unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with solar cells on the
wings, which collect energy used to drive a propeller. Perpetual endurance is the ability to
collect more energy than is lost during a day.

To travel between given positions within an allowed duration while maximizing the final value
of energy and to loiter perpetually from a given position, which requires perpetual endurance.
For the first one, the problem is of energy optimal path planning features the coupling of the
aircraft kinematics and energetic models through the bank angle. The power ratio is used to
predict the qualitative features of the optimal paths. If the power ratio exceeds a certain
threshold, perpetual endurance is possible. There are the solar airplanes which have a facility to
sustain energy for flight during day-night cycles

Close to the Earth surface they are useful for transportation and at high altitudes, they are useful
for monitoring and measurement applications, therefore they are targeted by several research
groups and institutions. Also it indicates that how to choose the essential design parameters of
the airplane for a specific mission, minding the current state-of-the-art technologies involved.
Solar airplanes using both batteries as energy storage devices as well as their capability of flying
performance optimizing altitude profiles can be sized and evaluated in terms of various
performance measures. There is the concept of the exploration of neighbor planets around the

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3.2 ROTOR OR MOTOR

The purpose of motors is to spin the propellers. Brushless DC motors provide the necessary
thrust to propel the craft. Each rotor needs to be controlled separately by a speed controller they
are a bit similar to normal DC motor in the way that coil and magnets are used to drive the shaft.
Through the brushless motor do not have a brush on the shaft which takes care of the switching
three power direction direction in the coils on that’s why there called brushless .instead of the
brushless motor have three coil on the inner of the motor. Which is is fixed to the mounting. On
the outer side it contains a number of magnets mounted to a cylinder that is attached to the
rotating shaft so the coil are fixed which means wires are go directly to them and therefore there
is no need for a brush. brushless motor spin in much higher speed and buses less power at the
same than the DC motors. Also they don’t lose power in the bush transmission.

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3.3 ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROLLER

The electronic speed controller control the speed of the motor or tells the motors how fast to spin
at a given time. For UAVs 4 electronic speed controller are needed one connected to each motor.
The electronic speed controller are then connected directly to the battery through either a wiring
harness or power distribution board. Many ESCs come with a built in battery eliminator circuit
Which allows to power things likes the flight control board ad radio receiver without connecting
them directly to the battery because the motors on a UAV must all spin at precise speed to
accurate flight the ESC is very important this firmware in a ESC charges the refresh rate of the
ESC so the motors get many more instruction per second from the ESC thus have greater control
over the UAV behavior the frequency of the signals also very a lot but for UAV it is preferred if
the controller support high enough frequency signals’ so the motor speed can be adjusted quick
enough for optimal stability

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3.4 BATTER

A battery is a key component of any solar panel system. This allows for components that rely on
electricity to function while sunlight is temporarily covered by clouds and during night hours. In
the context of a solar drone, the limiting factor of the battery is the weight. Electricity storage is
necessary, but there is a tradeoff, due to the additional energy required for the aircraft to carry
the battery. The storage capacity per unit weight continues to increase with Lithium-ion batteries
at the upper limit. Currently, the energy storage capacity of Lithium-ion batteries is around 8e5
J/kg A. lithium polymer battery, or more correctly lithium-ion polymer battery is a rechargeable
battery of lithium-ion technology using a polymer electrolyte instead of a liquid electrolyte. High
conductivity semisolid polymers form this electrolyte. These batteries provide higher specific
energy than other lithium battery types and are used in applications where weight is a critical
feature, like mobile devices and radio-controlled aircraft.

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3.5 PROPELLER
.

A propeller is the most common propulsion device used in UAVs. A propeller is composed of a
number of blades that rotate around an axis to produce thrust by pushing air much like a fan
does. A propeller's performance is determined by its geometry, and different propeller
geometries are optimized to produce thrust efficiently at given rotational and forward flight
speeds.

Types

Different propeller manufacturers use varying geometry styles for their propellers. Although
there are many styles available, some have become more commonly used and known. For
example, a popular propeller style for multicopters is the Slow Flyer style by GWS. This style is
designed for low rotational speeds and low forward flight speeds, and is ideal for multicopters.
APC style propellers are designed mainly for high-speed electric motor applications. Master
Airscrew styles are more popular in gas motor applications.

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4. BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF UAV

Over the last decade, governments all over the world have been acquiring ever- larger fleets of
UAVs to fulfill both urgent and longer-term military requirements.

Unmanned vehicles are ideal for carrying out dull, dirty, and dangerous jobs: robots do not mind
circling the skies of Afghanistan for dozens of hours and they can operate in military and civil
environments

Unmanned systems are attractive in times of budgetary restraints because they tend to be cheaper
compared to manned solutions. Their comparative cheapness and the fact that they are unmanned
also mean that they are more expendable. Sometimes, they even provide services that
would be prohibitively expensive or not at all possible to deliver otherwise,

While often cheaper alternatives to manned solutions, unmanned aerial systems costs are
approaching those of manned systems at the higher end of the spectrum, due to their increasingly
sophisticated equipment or technology,

Without the direct situational awareness of an onboard pilot, there are obvious concerns about
the ability to react to unexpected circumstances and perhaps the possible loss of communications
between the drone and its operator.

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5. APPLICATON OF SOLAR UAV

Surveying of objects and ground on the basis of orthographic photos to generate point clouds,
volume calculations, digital height and 3D models.

Industrial inspection of solar parks, wind parks, power lines, engines and plants, and industrial
parks. Offshore oil, gas and power plants and utilities – on- and offshore. Bridge inspection,
visual structure assessment and monitoring, inspection and survey of structures.

Aerial images & photography: Advertising photography, product photography, real estate
photography, landscape photography, up to 360° spherical panoramas, Point-of-Interest (POI)
imaging and Circle-of-Interest (COI) imaging.

Aerial movies & videography: Image, advertising and product spots, music clips, sport &
extreme sports footage.

Monitoring: Condition-analysis and target-analysis to document construction sites, structural

monitoring, sound barrier and wall monitoring, excavation documentation, plant and wildlife
preservation and conservation, or any kind of first-responder activities in crisis region

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6. ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY

The increase in fuel cost over the last few years drive an alternative source of the energy,
whether it is bio-fuels, hydrogen fuel cells, or solar cells. Bio-fuel has the advantage currently
because aviation companies put more funding in the technology than any other alternative
Source of energy. The other reason biofuels were chosen is because it would be simple to
Implement them into the current commercial aircraft, which would save money since new
aircraft would not have to be build. However, they are the most expensive over the time when
Compared to hydrogen fuel cells or solar cells because commercial aircraft will use millions Of
pounds of this fuel over next 50 years or so. There will come a point in time where I would be
Cheaper to build entirely new aircraft with solar technology then to use biofuel. Therefore not
only will solar technology be better for the environment, but it will also be more cost-effective
over a long period of time when compared to current commercial aircraft fuel.

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7. CONCLUSION

With the current desire for a greener society, an alternative source of energy for aircraft is
needed. There are many alternative energy solutions that are promising; including bio-fuel and
hydrogen fuel cells, but nothing is as limitless as solar technology. the application of high
altitude long endurance UAVs can potentially be very large, whether it is in weather
surveillance, studying natural disaster, or fire direction. The solar power UAV design discussed
weigh 1135lb, has a large wingspan of 224ft and hold up to 100lb of payload, which is More
than enough for all the surveillance and autopilot instruments. The advances in solar technology
have made it so the concept of solar powered UAVs and MAVs is not just A theory anymore.
Solar power airplanes are necessary for greener society and can be an important part of the future
of aviation.

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