A simple method for energy optimization to enhance durability of hybrid UAV power systems

More Electric Aircraft (MEA) promise many benefits (e.g., reduced weight, decreased fuel consumption, and high reliability), and their development continues to be the trend. Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are an ideal prototype to implement concepts of electrification to aircraft due to their small size and the DC nature of their power systems. This paper proposes an energy optimization method to enhance the energy durability of a UAV. Compared to existing methods for hybrid electric platforms, e.g., ground electric vehicles and electric ships, the proposed method enhances accurate representation of load characteristics and high computation speed, which are critical for aerial vehicles. This is accomplished with a dynamic program containing an inner mixed-integer linear program and a detailed UAV simulation model containing physical circuitry characteristics, reflecting complex and nonlinear behavior within a real system. The efficacy of this method is validated on a realistic UAV system.