Multirotor UAV flight endurance and control: The drive perspective

A novel approach is proposed to compare Brushless DC control and Field Oriented Control performance in driving Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines for multirotor UAVs, a particular class of small-size electrically-powered UAVs. Both power efficiency and output torque quality are analyzed in depth to carry out causes and consequences of control issues in both cases. Power losses and torque ripple contributions, due to driving techniques and converter non idealities, are decoupled and then exploited to show how large the torque oscillations are in case of Brushless DC control, and to highlight the higher efficiency given by Field Oriented Control, which can be exploited for enhancing the flight endurance.