31th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences

05 - Propulsion

DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID GASOLINE-BATTERY PROPULSION SYSTEM FOR MULTI-COPTER PLATFORM

H.R. Gwon¹, W.B. Kim¹, K.W. Lee¹, D.W. Kim¹, H.S. Lee¹; ¹Korean Air, South Korea

Nowadays, developing the range and endurance performance enhancement of multi-copter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform is the challenging, interesting topic, especially, the UAV operated by public / civil / commercial entity for public / civil / commercial purpose such as 3-D mapping, survivor search / rescue, agriculture, crime fighting, fire service. However, commercial available battery-based multi-copter UAVs can fly only half an hour because of the energy density of battery. For this reason, several researchers have suggested and developed many types hybrid propulsion system with combining of two or more distinct propulsions system, such as, gasoline engine, battery, fuel cell, solar photovoltaic cell, etc. The fuel cell and solar photovoltaic cell techniques are most eco-friendly, robust. However, there are currently some technical barriers to overcome for commercializing the hybrid propulsion system with the fuel cell and the photovoltaic cell technique. The fuel cell system still has hydrogen storage issue, fueling problem with related system maintenance cost. The energy density and power density of the photovoltaic cell are significantly low than other energy sources. Therefore, in this study, we focus the gasoline-battery type hybrid system. The proposed hybrid gasoline-battery propulsions system consisted with power management module, battery module, engine-generator module. In this proposed system, the high energy density characteristics of gasoline engine and the high power density characteristics of battery are combined. We propose that the series gasoline-battery hybrid propulsion system for 35 kg maximum take-off weight (MTOW) coaxial quad-copter UAV platform. The 10 HP two stroke gasoline engine – generator module is operated continuously and generated the AC electricity at the most fuel – efficient and torque – maximum RPM range. In order to improve performance, key technologies such as DC voltage supply without regulator, starting / generatin


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