Analysis of a Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with a BLDC Propulsion Motor Based on HIL Simulation

In this paper, a new multi-functional integrated DC-DC converter for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications is presented. Hybrid power sources, including a fuel cell (FC), battery, and solar, are used in the proposed UAV power system to prolong the flight endurance time. For those multiple sources, the proposed integrated DC-DC converter involves in different functional structures, which offer performance optimization of FC and solar panel, charging/discharging operation of the battery, DC bus voltage regulation, and is able to perform in the regenerative operating mode if it is needed. A permanent magnet BLDC motor is employed for the system working with the multi-functional integrated converter. Moreover, the proposed integrated converter can also be used to charge the battery through the grid from any outlet charging station. A real-time hardware-in-the-loop simulation setup has been used to verify the proposed converter and control strategy.