STUDYING THE POSSIBILITY OF INCREASING THE FLIGHT AUTONOMY OF A ROTARY-WING MUAV.

In the last few years, many researchers wrestle with the challenge to increase the flight autonomy of mUAVs. All these efforts were conclude in some results in term of fixed wing mUAV, where the flight autonomy has increased significantly, but for the rotary wing mUAV, the improvements are still pending. This paper approaches the idea of increasing autonomy for a quad rotor mUAV, by implementing a hydrogen PEM fuel cell alongside two lithium batteries. The idea behind this concept is to charge a battery from the PEM fuel cell, while using another battery to power the system. To test different configurations, simulations of the charging and discharging process were realized using Simulink and represent the main subject of this paper. The theoretical mUAV model used in the simulation, makes use of state of the art components, available on the market, to achieve great efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]