Design and Development of a Small Solar-Powered UAV for Environmental Monitoring Application

In order to promote the development of renewable energy in Thailand, the team has been developed a mall solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle for environmental monitoring application. This paper presents alternative design of this solar-powered UAV by aiming to achieve continuous flight endurance of 6 hours. This project shows the possibility of designing a long endurance solar-powered UAV for environmental monitoring applications. SunPower C60 mono-crystalline silicon PV cells were selected among a wide range of PV cells to be energy converter on board. Design parameter is a variation of wing aspect ratio between 5 and 12. Likewise, number of motor installed onboard was compared to obtain optimal aircraft configuration. The results have shown that hybrid solar powered UAV weight of 5.5 kilogram is predicted for 6-hour non-stop flight operation from 9AM to 3PM under Thailand weather condition. The 4.06-meter wingspan UAV is designed to be able to generate minimum electrical power up to 100 Watts. Two brushless electric motors are to be installed to maintain cruising speed at 8 meter per second by enabling flying against wind speed of 5 meter per second and reaching flight altitude up to 1 kilometer above sea level for environmental monitoring function.