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Takeoff Performance Assessment and Energy Management Strategy of a Hybrid-Electric VTOL UAV

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Proceedings of 2021 International Conference on Autonomous Unmanned Systems (ICAUS 2021) (ICAUS 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 861))

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Abstract

The hybrid-electric technology has great potential in electric aviation. By optimizing power system, hybrid-electric technology can not only improve the efficiency, but also satisfied the requirements of distributed layout to obtain more agile vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircrafts. Combining with flight conditions of VTOL UAV and energy supply characteristics of hybrid-electric systems, this paper establishes a hybrid-electric VTOL UAV model. The impacts of battery initial capacity on the process of vertical takeoff are analyzed that increasing the initial capacity of battery is unfavorable to the agility of the VTOL UAV. On this basis, the typical parameters of hybrid-electric VTOL UAV are calculated by comparing with pure electric VTOL UAVs. It shows that the hybrid-electric VTOL UAV has great advantages in power weight ratio, maximum rate of climb and widest power margin at the takeoff moment. Through emulation program, the minimum fuel consumption distribution at different flight conditions is obtained, and the energy management strategy of the hybrid-electric VTOL UAV in takeoff process is given, which mainly includes the selection of rate of climb and the adjustment of hybridization. The conclusions and analysis methods of this paper can provide a reference for the conceptual design of hybrid-electric aircrafts.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Defense Technology, Hunan, 410073, China

    Jianan Zong, Bingjie Zhu & Zhongxi Hou

Authors
  1. Jianan Zong
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  2. Bingjie Zhu
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  3. Zhongxi Hou
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Intelligence Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Meiping Wu

  2. College of Intelligence Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China

    Yifeng Niu

  3. Beijing HIWING Scientific and Technological Information Institute, Beijing, China

    Mancang Gu

  4. Science and Technology on Complex System Control and Intelligent Agent Cooperative Laboratory, Beijing, China

    Jin Cheng

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Zong, J., Zhu, B., Hou, Z. (2022). Takeoff Performance Assessment and Energy Management Strategy of a Hybrid-Electric VTOL UAV. In: Wu, M., Niu, Y., Gu, M., Cheng, J. (eds) Proceedings of 2021 International Conference on Autonomous Unmanned Systems (ICAUS 2021). ICAUS 2021. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 861. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9492-9_29

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