Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Robotics

Synonyms

Solar-powered unmanned aircraft; Solar-powered unmanned aerial systems

Definition

Solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are uninhabited aircraft that leverage sun radiation to partially or completely power their onboard systems. The reduced load on batteries or other energy storage systems increases both flight endurance and range. When properly designed, the aircraft’s solar panels can generate excess power that recharges the battery over the day. In suitable environmental conditions, the batteries are recharged enough to keep the aircraft airborne throughout the night. This continuous discharge-recharge cycle allows solar-powered multi-day flight and, from an energy perspective, leads to a perpetual flight capability. Robotic technologies optimally complement this long-endurance flight capacity. By providing the aircraft with accurate and robust automatic flight control and guidance, the workload of the operators is reduced significantly.

Overview

History and State...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ackerman E (2013) Giant solar-powered UAVs are atmospheric satellites. IEEE spectrum. http://spectrum. ieee.org/automaton/robotics/aerial-robots/giant-solar- powered-uavs-are-atmospheric-satellites

  • AeroVironment (2013) AeroVironment solar-powered puma AE small unmanned aircraft achieves continuous flight for more than nine hours. Press release. http://www.avinc.com/resources/press_release/aeroviro nment-solar-powered-puma-ae-small-unmanned-aircraft- achieves-contin

  • Boucher RJ (1984) History of solar flight. In: AIAA/SAE/ASME 20th Joint Propulsion Conference

    Google Scholar 

  • Brandt SA, Gilliam FT (1995) Design analysis methodology for solar-powered aircraft. J Aircr 32(4):703–709

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2016) Solar impulse lands in California after pacific crossing. http:// www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36122618. Retrieved 10 Dec 2017

  • ByeAerospace (2015) Industry first: solar-electric silent falcon prepares for initial customer orders. Press release. http://www.byeaerospace.com/news/2016/3/2/ industry-first-solar-electric-silent-falcon-prepares-for- initial-customer-orders

  • Chakrabarty A, Langelaan J (2013) UAV flight path planning in time varying complex wind-fields. In: American Control Conference (ACC)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cocconi A (2005) AC propulsion’s solar electric powered SoLong UAV. Technical Report, AC propulsion. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/ACPropulsionSolongUAV2005

    Google Scholar 

  • Colella N, Wenneker G (1996) Pathfinder: developing a solar rechargeable aircraft. IEEE Potentials 15(1):18–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dai R (2013) Path planning of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles at low altitude. In: Circuits and Systems (MWSCAS), 2013 IEEE 56th international midwest symposium on, IEEE, pp 693–696

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Sa R, Jenson D, Henderson T, Kilian J, Schulz B, Calvert M, Heller T, Papanikolopoulos N (2016) SUAV:Q – an improved design for a transformable solar-powered UAV. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016 IEEE/RSJ international conference on, IEEE, pp 1609–1615

    Google Scholar 

  • Federation Aeronautique Internationale (2010) QinetiQ Hale Team (GBR) record. Official record. www.fai.org/record/qinetiq-hale-team-gbr-16052

  • Flittie K, Curtin B (1998) Pathfinder solar-powered aircraft flight performance. In: 23rd Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference

    Google Scholar 

  • Frulla G (2004) Aeroelastic behaviour of a solar-powered high-altitude long endurance unmanned air vehicle (HALE-UAV) slender wing. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, part G. J Aerosp Eng 218(3):179–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Herwitz S, Johnson L, Dunagan S, Higgins R, Sullivan D, Zheng J, Lobitz B, Leung J, Gallmeyer B, Aoyagi M, et al (2004) Imaging from an unmanned aerial vehicle: agricultural surveillance and decision support. Comput Electron Agric 44(1):49–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hosseini S, Dai R, Mesbahi M (2013) Optimal path planning and power allocation for a long endurance solar-powered UAV. In: American Control Conference (ACC), IEEE, pp 2588–2593

    Google Scholar 

  • How JP (2014) UAV control. In: Valavanis KP, Vachtsevanos GJ (eds) Handbook of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, chap 26–30. Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated., pp 527–710

    Google Scholar 

  • Klesh A, Kabamba P (2007) Energy-optimal path planning for solar-powered aircraft in level flight. In: AIAA guidance, Navigation and Control Conference and Exhibit, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Klesh AT, Kabamba PT (2009) Solar-powered aircraft: energy-optimal path planning and perpetual endurance. J Guid Control Dyn 32:1320–1329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kucinski W (2018) Airbus Zephyr S breaks world flight endurance record during maiden flight. SAE international. https://www.sae.org/news/2018/08/airbus- zephyr-s-breaks-world-flight-endurance-record-during- maiden-flight

  • Leutenegger S, Jabas M, Siegwart R (2010) Solar airplane conceptual design and performance estimation. J Intell Robot Syst 61:545–561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malaver AJR, Gonzalez LF, Motta N, Villa TF (2015) Design and flight testing of an integrated solar powered UAV and WSN for remote gas sensing. In: IEEE Aerospace Conference

    Google Scholar 

  • Mardanpour P, Hodges DH (2015) On the importance of nonlinear aeroelasticity and energy efficiency in design of flying wing aircraft. Adv Aerosp Eng 2015:1–11

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morton S, Papanikolopoulos N (2016) Two meter solar UAV: design approach and performance prediction for autonomous sensing applications. In: Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2016 IEEE/RSJ international conference on. IEEE, pp 1695–1701

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton S, Scharber L, Papanikolopoulos N (2013) Solar powered unmanned aerial vehicle for continuous flight: conceptual overview and optimization. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Morton S, D’Sa R, Papanikolopoulos N (2015) Solar powered UAV: design and experiments. In: IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

    Google Scholar 

  • National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2016) Best research-cell efficiencies. Retrieved from http://www.nrel.gov/pv/ on 10 Apr 2018

  • Nickol C, Guynn M, Kohout L, Ozoroski T (2007) High altitude long endurance UAV analysis of alternatives and technology requirements development. Technical report, NASA/TP-2007-214861

    Google Scholar 

  • Noll TE, Brown JM, Perez-Davis ME, Ishmael SD, Tiffany GC, Gaier M (2004) Investigation of the Helios prototype aircraft mishap. Volume I: mishap report. Technical report, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Noth A (2008a) Design of solar powered airplanes for continuous flight. Ph.D. thesis, ETH Zurich

    Google Scholar 

  • Noth A (2008b) History of solar flight. Autonomous systems lab, ETH Zurich. http://www.sky-sailor.ethz.ch/docs/HistoryofSolarFlightv2.0-A.Noth2008.pdf

    Google Scholar 

  • Oettershagen P, Melzer A, Mantel T, Rudin K, Stastny T, Wawrzacz B, Hinzmann T, Leutenegger S, Alexis K, Siegwart R (2017) Design of small hand-launched solar-powered UAVs: from concept study to a multi-day world endurance record flight. J Field Robot (JFR) 34(7):1352–1377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oettershagen P, Förster J, Wirth L, Ambühl J, Siegwart R (2018a) Meteorology-aware multi-Goal path planning for large-scale inspection missions with solar-powered aircraft. J Aerosp Inf Syst. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.I010635

  • Oettershagen P, Stastny T, Hinzmann T, Rudin K, Mantel T, Melzer A, Wawrzacz B, Hitz G, Siegwart R (2018b) Robotic technologies for solar-powered UAVs: fully-autonomous updraft-aware aerial sensing for multi-Day search-and-rescue missions. J Field Robot (JFR)

    Google Scholar 

  • Osborne T (2016) U.K. will buy two Zephyr 8 UAVs. Aviationweek aerospace daily. http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/uk-will-buy-two-zephyr-8-uavs

  • Patil MJ, Hodges DH, Cesnik CE (2001) Nonlinear aeroelasticity and flight dynamics of high-altitude long-endurance aircraft. J Aircr 38(1):88–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Romeo G, Frulla G, Cestino E (2007) Design of a high-altitude long-endurance solar-powered unmanned air vehicle for multi-payload and operations. In: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, part G: J Aerosp Eng 221(2):199–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross H (2008) Fly around the world with a solar powered airplane. In: The 26th congress of international council of the aeronautical sciences (ICAS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubio JC, Kragelund S (2003) The trans-pacific crossing: long range adaptive path planning for UAVs through variable wind fields. In: Digital Avionics Systems Conference. DASC’03. The 22nd, IEEE, vol 2, pp 8–B

    Google Scholar 

  • Rubio JC, Vagners J, Rysdyk R (2004) Adaptive path planning for autonomous UAV oceanic search missions. In: AIAA 1st Intelligent Systems Technical Conference, pp 20–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudin K, Serrano D, Strupler P (2017) Unmanned aerial systems. In: Search and rescue robotics – from theory to practice, InTech, Rijeka, chap 03. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69490

    Google Scholar 

  • Runge H, Rack W, Ruiz-Leon A, Hepperle M (2007) A solar powered HALE-UAV for arctic research. In: 1st CEAS European air and space conference

    Google Scholar 

  • Shiau JK, Ma DM, Chiu CW (2010) Optimal sizing and cruise speed determination for a solar-powered airplane. J Aircr 47:622–629

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sion Power (2014) Sion power’s lithium-sulfur batteries power high altitude pseudo-satellite flight. Press release. http://sionpower.com/media-center.php?code=sion-powers-lithiumsulfur-batteries-power-high-alt

    Google Scholar 

  • Spangelo S, Gilbert E, Klesh A, Kabamba P, Girard A (2009) Periodic energy-optimal path planning for solar-powered aircraft. In: AIAA guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tozer T, Grace D (2001) High-altitude platforms for wireless communications. Electron Commun Eng J 13(3):127–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weider A, Levy H, Regev I, Ankri L, Goldenberg T, Ehrlich Y, Vladimirsky A, Yosef Z, Cohen M (2007) SunSailor: solar powered UAV. Technical report, Aerospace engineering faculty, technion. http://webee. technion.ac.il/people/maxcohen/SunSailorArt19nov06. pdf

  • Zhu X, Guo Z, Hou Z (2014) Solar-powered airplanes: a historical perspective and future challenges. Prog Aerosp Sci 71:36–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zu CX, Li H (2011) Thermodynamic analysis on energy densities of batteries. Energy Environ Sci 4(8):2614. https://doi.org/10.1039/c0ee00777c

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Philipp Oettershagen, Thomas Stastny & Roland Siegwart

Authors
  1. Philipp Oettershagen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Stastny
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Roland Siegwart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philipp Oettershagen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Blk 1E Gillman Hts #17-43, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Marcelo H Ang

  2. Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Oussama Khatib

  3. Dipto di Informatica e Sistemistca, Univ di Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy

    Bruno Siciliano

Section Editor information

  1. GRVC Robotics Labs. Sevilla, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería, Universidad de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain

    Aníbal Ollero

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Oettershagen, P., Stastny, T., Siegwart, R. (2020). Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. In: Ang, M., Khatib, O., Siciliano, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_69-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_69-1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41610-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41610-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation