Design of a Solar Power Management System for an Experimental UAV

Author

Shiau, Jaw-Kuen ; Ma, Der-Ming ; Yang, Pin-Ying ; Wang, Geng-Feng ; Gong, Jhij Hua

Author_Institution

Dept. of Aerosp. Eng., Tamkang Univ., Tamsui, Taiwan

Volume

45

Issue

4

fYear

2009

Firstpage

1350

Lastpage

1360

Abstract

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.

Keywords

DC-DC power convertors; aerospace robotics; battery management systems; remotely operated vehicles; secondary cells; solar powered vehicles; UAV; battery management; charge-discharge processes; dc-dc synchronous buck converters; maximum power point tracking; onboard computers; onboard electronic systems; polymer battery modules; solar cell panels; solar power management system; unmanned aerial vehicle; voltage 12 V; voltage 5 V; Battery management systems; Computer displays; Energy management; Photovoltaic cells; Polymers; Power conversion; Power system management; Scanning probe microscopy; Solar energy; Unmanned aerial vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9251

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TAES.2009.5310303

Filename

5310303