Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
There have been large developments in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) industry over the last decade. Although UAV development was mainly for military related use in the beginning and despite there being fear surrounding the release of this technology to the open market for quite a long time, nowa...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/22/10890 |
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| author | Octavian Narcis Ionescu Ileana Cernica Elena Manea Catalin Parvulescu Alin Istrate Gabriela Ionescu Mirela Petruta Suchea |
| author_facet | Octavian Narcis Ionescu Ileana Cernica Elena Manea Catalin Parvulescu Alin Istrate Gabriela Ionescu Mirela Petruta Suchea |
| author_sort | Octavian Narcis Ionescu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There have been large developments in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) industry over the last decade. Although UAV development was mainly for military related use in the beginning and despite there being fear surrounding the release of this technology to the open market for quite a long time, nowadays, there are a variety of applications where UAVs are used extensively, such as in agriculture, infrastructure inspection and monitoring, mobile retranslation relays for communications, etc. One of the weaknesses of electrically propelled UAVs is flight autonomy; there is often a difficult trade-of between the weight of the payload, batteries, and surface to be surveyed that is necessary to determine. There have been many attempts to use photovoltaic cells to increase the flight time for UAVs; however, a reliable solution has not yet been developed. The present paper presents improvements that have been conducted to extend the autonomy of electrically derived UAVs: instead of gluing photovoltaic cells on the wings, the new approach embeds the solar cells into the wing structure as well as develops a new wing that is significantly lighter to compensate for the weight added by the photovoltaic cells. It was demonstrated that by using this approach, a 33% increase in the flight time can be achieved with only one modified wing in a prototype vehicle. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:43:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6c97ff4431524b9fa586feb56ee0b38c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:43:15Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-6c97ff4431524b9fa586feb56ee0b38c2023-11-22T22:20:27ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172021-11-0111221089010.3390/app112210890Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial VehiclesOctavian Narcis Ionescu0Ileana Cernica1Elena Manea2Catalin Parvulescu3Alin Istrate4Gabriela Ionescu5Mirela Petruta Suchea6Faculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum and Gas University of Ploiesti, 100680 Ploiesti, RomaniaNational Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest), 023573 Bucharest, RomaniaNational Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest), 023573 Bucharest, RomaniaNational Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest), 023573 Bucharest, RomaniaAutonomous Flight Technology Ltd., 24042 Bucharest, RomaniaFaculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Petroleum and Gas University of Ploiesti, 100680 Ploiesti, RomaniaNational Institute for Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest), 023573 Bucharest, RomaniaThere have been large developments in the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) industry over the last decade. Although UAV development was mainly for military related use in the beginning and despite there being fear surrounding the release of this technology to the open market for quite a long time, nowadays, there are a variety of applications where UAVs are used extensively, such as in agriculture, infrastructure inspection and monitoring, mobile retranslation relays for communications, etc. One of the weaknesses of electrically propelled UAVs is flight autonomy; there is often a difficult trade-of between the weight of the payload, batteries, and surface to be surveyed that is necessary to determine. There have been many attempts to use photovoltaic cells to increase the flight time for UAVs; however, a reliable solution has not yet been developed. The present paper presents improvements that have been conducted to extend the autonomy of electrically derived UAVs: instead of gluing photovoltaic cells on the wings, the new approach embeds the solar cells into the wing structure as well as develops a new wing that is significantly lighter to compensate for the weight added by the photovoltaic cells. It was demonstrated that by using this approach, a 33% increase in the flight time can be achieved with only one modified wing in a prototype vehicle.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/22/10890photovoltaic integrationmicrostructuresultra-light wingUAV |
| spellingShingle | Octavian Narcis Ionescu Ileana Cernica Elena Manea Catalin Parvulescu Alin Istrate Gabriela Ionescu Mirela Petruta Suchea Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Applied Sciences photovoltaic integration microstructures ultra-light wing UAV |
| title | Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
| title_full | Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
| title_fullStr | Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
| title_full_unstemmed | Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
| title_short | Integration of Micro-Structured Photovoltaic Cells into the Ultra-Light Wing Structure for Extended Range Unmanned Aerial Vehicles |
| title_sort | integration of micro structured photovoltaic cells into the ultra light wing structure for extended range unmanned aerial vehicles |
| topic | photovoltaic integration microstructures ultra-light wing UAV |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/22/10890 |
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