The use of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with electrical propulsion systems in both military and civilian areas has attracted considerable attention in recent years. In such UAVs, batteries, supercapacitors, hydrogen‐fuel cell systems, piezo materials, and solar cells can be used to power the electric motors during the flight. These systems have different specifications in terms of cost, energy and power density, dynamic response, efficiency, lifetime, etc. and none of these energy sources alone can hardly meet the power demand of a UAV. For this reason, hybrid systems, which are a combination of these energy components, have been proposed in the literature. Such hybrid systems require appropriate energy management to increase the total efficiency of the system, lifetime of each energy component, and flight time/range of UAV. Energy management techniques applied to hybrid systems are divided into two classes, active or passive. Active energy management strategies are more efficient but require more complex system topologies than passive methods. This study presents different hydrogen‐based systems that can be used to feed the electric motors in UAVs and compare them with other technologies in terms of several Key Performance Indexes. Moreover, different hybrid system topologies proposed for fuel cell‐based small UAVs and their passive/ active energy management techniques such as rule‐based, optimization‐based, and learning‐based strategies are examined and discussed. Finally, future work topics on the use of fuel cells in UAVs are proposed, which could be important to optimize the flight time/range and the energy consumption of UAVs.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Current Technologies and Future Trends of Hydrogen Propulsion Systems in Hybrid Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2023-03-28


    Size :

    35 pages




    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




    PROPULSION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR FUTURE MANNED AND UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

    Rud, K. / International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2006



    MODELING OF HYBRID ELECTRIC PROPULSION SYSTEMS FOR SMALL UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

    Schoemann, J. / Hornung, M. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; International Society for Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2012


    Design of Hybrid Propulsion Systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

    Lieh, Junghsen / Spahr, Eric / Behbahani, Alireza et al. | AIAA | 2011


    AIAA-2005-1246 PROPULSION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES FOR FUTURE MANNED AND UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

    Rud, K. / Vogel, U. / Geiger, P. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2005