Title :
Critical design parameters for a low altitude long endurance solar powered UAV
Author :
Wilkins, Grant ; Fourie, Dehann ; Meyer, Johan
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Abstract :
The paper presented provides theoretical findings of the critical solar UAV parameters required for prolonged flight. The parameters being, battery energy density, wing surface area, total UAV weight and solar surface area. The findings are based on two individual models, a solar and an aerodynamic model, which are combined to form a solar powered UAV model.
Keywords :
attitude control; control system synthesis; remotely operated vehicles; solar powered vehicles; telecontrol; vehicle dynamics; aerodynamic model; battery energy density parameter; critical design parameters; low altitude long endurance UAV; solar model; solar powered UAV; solar surface area parameter; total UAV weight parameter; wing surface area parameter; Aerodynamics; Aerospace electronics; Africa; Aircraft; Batteries; Design engineering; Earth; Photovoltaic cells; Power engineering and energy; Unmanned aerial vehicles;
Conference_Titel :
AFRICON, 2009. AFRICON '09.
Conference_Location :
Nairobi
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3918-8
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3919-5
DOI :
10.1109/AFRCON.2009.5308105
