A Low Energy Consumption Flight Path Using Minimum Sink Rate Glide for Solar-powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a type of drone powered by solar cells installed onboard which capture solar energy during daylight and converts into electric power. Such generated power is supplied to the motor to propel the aircraft and other electronics or to recharge the battery on board. Solar-powered UAVs have a number of advantages over traditional fossil-fuel-powered drones. For one, they are much more environmentally friendly, producing zero emissions and requiring no fuel to be transported to their location. Additionally, because they can stay aloft for extended periods of time, they are useful for a variety of applications, including surveillance, mapping, and monitoring of environmental conditions. This chapter presents the generation of low energy flight path for a small 5.5 kg hand-launchable low-altitude long endurance (LALE) solar powered UAV. The goal of proposed work is to decrease the energy consumption of aircraft to increase the endurance by using the optimal climb angle and the minimum sink rate glide. A climb and glide phase energy optimization with the validation of surplus solar energy to satisfy the energy consumption has been proposed.