Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers

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Development of an experimental solar-powered

unmanned aerial vehicle

Jaw-Kuen Shiau & Der-Ming Ma

To cite this article: Jaw-Kuen Shiau & Der-Ming Ma (2015) Development of an experimental
solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle, Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 38:6,
701-713, DOI: 10.1080/02533839.2015.1018327

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533839.2015.1018327

Published online: 16 Mar 2015.

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 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers, 2015
Vol. 38, No. 6, 701713, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02533839.2015.1018327

Development of an experimental solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle

Jaw-Kuen Shiau and Der-Ming Ma*
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Tamkang University, Tamsui, New Taipei City 25137, Taiwan, ROC
(Received 19 July 2013; accepted 24 December 2014)

This paper summarizes the design of a solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Two major achievements, aerody-
Downloaded by [National University of Sciences & Technology] at 12:36 28 September 2015

namic performance design of a solar-powered aircraft and its solar power management system design, are presented. For
aerodynamic performance design, the mass of the aircraft is parameterized as a function of two performance parameters:
wing reference area and cruise speed. With the parameterization results, a tness function that links the optimization
problem and the genetic algorithm is established. The genetic algorithm searches for the optimal results for minimum
energy operation. A solar-powered UAV is then built based on the optimization results. A solar power management
system is designed to obtain electric energy from the solar system to support the required power for the aircraft propul-
sion system and on-board electronic systems. The system includes solar cell panels, maximum power point tracker, and
power conversion. An auto-ranging non-inverting synchronous buck-boost dc-to-dc power converter is designed to
perform the maximum power point tracking, power conversion, and battery charging functions. The proposed design
methodologies for solar-powered UAV and solar power management system are veried through successful ground and
ight test. This is the Taiwans rst ever solar-powered UAV.
Keywords: solar-powered UAV; mass parameterization; solar power management system; buck-boost power converter

1. Introduction It concentrates on using analytical approaches to deter-

Over the past few decades, unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs) have been proven as an important asset in both
military and civil aviation. Degrees of autonomy and
endurance capabilities of UAVs are major concerns for
end users. It is desirable that UAVs can stay aloft with-
out refueling and with minimized maintenance. Solar
power has the potential to redene endurance capabilities
for UAVs since solar-powered UAVs draw energy
directly from the sun, an unlimited and free power
source.
After the successful ight of Sunrise, the worlds rst
solar-powered aircraft developed by Aero Vironment
Inc., the development of solar-powered aircraft has been
placed on a fast track of aviation research as several
design centers and research institutions have recognized
the potential of solar-powered UAVs (Boucher 1984,
1985). A brief list of the most prominent solar-powered
aircraft consists of Gossamer Penguin, Solar Challenger,
Pathnder, Centurion, and Helios (MacCready et al.
1983; NASA Dryden Fact Sheet 1998). A conceptual
design methodology for a solar-powered aircraft was pre-
sented in Brandt and Gilliam (1995). It incorporated spe-
cial characteristics and constraints into the solar-powered
aircraft design process. A study focused on aerodynam-
ics, ight performance, and power requirements of solar-
powered, high-altitude long-endurance UAV was
reported in Baldock and Mokhtarzadeh-Dehghan (2006).
mine the power required for various maneuvers and the
intensity of solar radiation available to the aircraft. It
provided a simple approach for an initial feasibility study
of a solar-powered UAV. The results from the conceptual
design, however, may not provide optimal aerodynamic
performance.
Aerodynamic conguration design, linked with
autonomy and endurance capabilities, must be optimized
in order to provide optimal aerodynamic performance.
Solution techniques devised in the optimization design
can be divided into two major categories: gradient-based
optimization and stochastic search algorithms. A subset
of stochastic search methods, genetic algorithms, pro-
vides a means to more easily solve complex optimization
problems. The algorithms can be used for a broad class
of complex systems (Goldberg 1989; Holland 1992;
Hwang et al. 2005; Lee, Su, and Lee 2002; Miralbes and
Castejon 2012) and have been widely studied and
applied to the optimization of aerodynamic conguration
designs (Giannakoglou 2002; Gonzalez, Damp, and
Srinivas 2007; Nagasaki, Higashino, and Sakurai 2005;
Namgoong, Crossley, and Lyrintzis 2006; Park et al.
2008). Most research focuses on the optimization of the
aerodynamic congurations and efciencies of the
evolutionary computation algorithms. The design of a
solar-powered airplane is more complicated (Brandt and
Gilliam 1995; Hall et al. 1983; Hall and Hall 1984; Noth

*Corresponding author. Email: derming@mail.tku.edu.tw

2015 The Chinese Institute of Engineers

 702 J.-K. Shiau and D.-M. Ma

2008). Not only must the characteristics and constraints Tr v

Ppropulsion ; (2)
of solar power be integrated into the design, but the gmotor gpropeller
trade-off between the aerodynamic conguration and
operating conditions must also be considered. To sim- with
plify the design, a novel approach using mass parameter- 1
ization and a genetic algorithm to optimize the size and Tr CD q1 v2 Sref ; (3)
2
cruise speed of a solar-powered UAV was developed in
where motor is the motor efciency, propeller is the ef-
(Shiau et al. 2010). In this approach, the mass of the air-
ciency of the propeller. The efciency of the motor is
craft is parameterized as a function of two performance
assumed to be 80%, whereas 85% is assumed for the
parameters: wing reference area and cruise speed. With
propeller. The drag coefcient CD is approximated to
the parameterization results, a tness function that links
CD CD;0 KCL2 (Anderson 1999) in this research. To
the optimization problem and the genetic algorithm is
minimize the decision variables, the fuselage design is
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then established. The genetic algorithm searches for the

xed and the platform and the aspect ratio of the wing
optimal results for minimum energy operation.
are not changed, the coefcients CD,0 and K can be con-
Based on the design methodology proposed in
sidered as constants. The aerodynamic parameters con-
Shiau et al. (2010), this paper reports the design and
sidered in this design are CD,0 = 0.00758, K = 0.0674,
implementation of an experimental solar-powered UAV,
and CL = 0.5805. Using the assumed parameters, the
named YueZhuo. The UAV YueZhuo is intended to
power consumption for the propulsion system becomes:
develop the skills of designing and building regenera-
tively powered aircraft. The design, development, and Ppropulsion 0:0258v3 Sref : (4)
manufacturing of the solar-powered experimental UAV,
Equation (4) shows that the power consumption for the
YueZhuo, is the rst contribution of this paper. Parallel
propulsion system also depends on the cruise speed and
to the manufacturing of the airplane, an auto-ranging,
the referenced wing area. Besides the power required for
non-inverting, synchronous, buck-boost power converter
the propulsion system, the power requirement also
is developed to support the need for solar power man-
includes the power required for the avionics and control
agement for the YueZhuo aircraft. This is the second
systems, denoted as Pothers, and the power required to
contribution of the paper. After successfully going
charge the battery, denoted as Pcharge, for nighttime oper-
through a series of simulation tests, hardwaresoftware
ation. In this experimental program, we do not consider
integration tests, power and propulsion tests, and other
charging the battery in the air, that is, Pcharge is
necessary preight tests, Taiwans rst ever
neglected, whereas the power required for Pcharge is
solar-powered UAV, YueZhuo, successfully took its
assumed to be 5 W. Therefore, the total required power
maiden ight on 18 August 2012.
from the solar cell panel to support normal operation will
be:
2. Minimum power cruise speed and power Prequired Ppropulsion Pothers =gconverter ; (5)
requirement
where converter is the efciency of the solar power man-
In straight and level ight, the lift (L) is equal to the
agement system, including the maximum power point
vehicle weight (W), and the propulsion system needs to
tracking and the voltage regulator, and is assumed to be
provide a thrust force (Tr) to overcome the drag force
0.81 in this process. The required power in Equation (5)
(D). From Shiau et al. (2010), the cruise speed for mini-
is rewritten as:
mum power operation can be computed as:
s !1=2 Prequired 0:0319Sref v3 6:1728: (6)
2 K W
Vopt ; (1) For normal operation, the supplied power from the solar
q1 3CD;0 Sref
power panel, denoted as Psupplied, must be higher than
where is the air density at the designated altitude, the total required power. That is:
CD,0 is the zero-lift drag coefcient, K is the induced Psupplied  Prequired  0; (7)
drag factor, and Sref is the referenced wing surface area
of the YueZhuo airplane. Equation (1) shows that the Assuming that the solar cells cover 65% of the wing
cruise speed for the minimum energy operation area, the expected power obtained from the solar power
depends on the wing area, total weight of the aircraft, panel can be computed as:
and air density (altitude). Changes in any variables in Psupplied 0:65Sref Esun gpanel ; (8)
Equation (1) will result in recalculation of the cruise
speed. The power consumption for the propulsion where Esun represents the average irradiance of solar
system is radiation energy and is assumed to be 750 W/m2 in this
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers
consideration, panel is the efciency of the energy
conversion of the solar cells. Solar cell panels with
panel = 0.20 are adopted in this design. Thus, the
supplied power can be rewritten as:
Psupplied 97:5Sref ;
Equation (9) indicates that the expected power supplied
from the solar panel also depends on the referenced
surface area Sref.
3. Mass parameterization of YueZhuo airplane
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The weight of the airplane can be counted by adding up
the weight of all subsystems including structure, propul-
sion system, solar cell panel, batteries, and payloads. In
this optimization process, we will limit the decision vari-
ables to cruise speed (v) and reference wing areas (Sref )
by nding a means to represent the aircraft weight in
terms of v and Sref. The parameterizations of the mass of
YueZhuo airplane are discussed below.
The mass for the unit area of the selected solar cell
panel is 1:1 kg/m2 in this design. Thus, the mass of the
solar cell panel, Mpanel, is
Mpanel 1:1  0:65  Sref 0:715  Sref ;
The mass of the structure, Mstructure, is computed from
the wet area and the unit mass of the structure. The unit
mass of the structure is 0:6 kg/m2 for this particular
design. Then,
Mstructure 1:2  Sref 4:4;
where 4.4 is the mass of fuselage and other xed parts.
The mass of the propulsion system is proportional to the
referenced wing area. The corresponding unit mass of
the propulsion system is 0:485 kg/m2 (Ma 2005) in this
design. Thus, the mass of the propulsion system is:
Mthrust Sref  0:485 kg/m2 ;
The mass of the battery, Mbattery is:
Ebattery
Mbattery ; (13)
qbattery
where battery is the energy density of the battery and
Ebattery is the required battery energy. The energy density
of the battery battery is assumed to be 196 Wh/kg in this
study. The required battery energy is:
 
0:5Tdusk Tnight Tday battery Ppropulsion Pothers
Ebattery
fDOD gdischarge
The constants Tdusk and Tnight represent the duration the
battery has to power the aircraft, fDOD and discharge
are the depth-of-discharge and discharge efciency of the
battery, respectively. In this development process, we do
703
not consider ying the airplane at night. Thus, we set
Tdusk = 0 and Tnight 0. For safety, an Li-ion battery is
carried on-board as a backup power source for when the
solar power is insufcient to support the aircraft
operation. The parameter Tday_battery is used to account
(9)
for the time required for the battery to power the aircraft
and is assumed to be 0.5 h. The factor of the depth-
of-discharge fDOD = 0.8 and efciency of the battery
discharge discharge = 0.95 are also assumed. Thus, the
required battery can be expressed as:
Ebattery 0:0085Sref v3 1:6447; (15)
Thus, the mass of the battery is:
Mbattery 4:3367  105  Sref  v3 0:0084; (16)
The mass of the payload is limited to Mpayload 0:7 kg
for this design. Therefore, the total mass of the airplane,
Mtotal = Mstructure + Mbattery + Mthrust + Mpanel + Mpayload
is
Mtotal 2:4003Sref 4:3367  105  Sref  v3
5:1084: (17)
In Equation (17), the total mass of the airplane is
(10) expressed as a function of the reference wing area Sref
and the cruise speed v.
For minimum power operation, the constraints of
Equation (1) must be satised. With total mass of the
airplane being parameterized as Equation (17), the opti-
mization process is to search for an optimal solution pair
(11) (Sref, Vopt) that satises Equations (1) and (17) under the
conditions of the lift force being equal to the weight of
the airplane and the supplied power from the solar power
panel being higher than the total consumed power. From
the above discussions, the following optimization prob-
lem is formulated to nd the optimal solution for the
minimum power operation.
Optimization problem: Find a referenced wing area
(12)
Sref and a cruise speed v to minimize the objective
function
 
J Sref ; v w1 jL=g  
  Mtotal j w2 v  Vopt

w3 Psupplied  Prequired  (18)
subject to
2 q1 v Sref CL  Mtotal  g 0
1 2
v  Vopt 0 (19)
 Psupplied  Prequired  0;
; where Vopt, Prequired, Psupplied, and Mtotal are dened in
Equations (1), (6), (8), and (17), respectively.
(14)
The YueZhuo airplane is designed to y at a cruise
altitude of 100 m. Hence, the air density and gravita-
tional constant g are set to 1.214 kg/m3 and 9.8 m/s2 ,
respectively. The constants w1, w2, and w3 are positive
weighting factors imposed to balance the numerical
 704 J.-K. Shiau and D.-M. Ma
signicance of the physical variables contributing to the
objective function J(Sref, v). In this optimization problem,
a difference of 1 or 2 (watts) between the supplied and
required power is considered acceptable. But, a differ-
ence of 1 or 2 (m/s) between the cruise speed and the
optimal cruise speed is signicant and not acceptable
due to the fact that the energy consumption is propor-
tional to the cube of the speed. Similarly, the difference
between the lift and the weight must be within an
acceptable region. After several evaluations,
w1 ; w2 ; w3 10; 60; 1 is selected for the optimiza- Prequired = 109.12 W. Using these design results, the
tion process in this design. We will obtain the optimal
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value of the referenced wing surface area Sref and cruise
speed v when the objective function J(Sref, v) is mini-
mized. The MATLAB genetic algorithm and direct
search toolbox is used to nd the optimal solution. The
objective function Equation (18) serves as the tness
function for the genetic algorithm and links the optimiza-
tion problem with the genetic algorithm. We map the
decision variables (wing area and cruise speed) into
chromosome-like binary strings. Two sets of chromo-
somes (one for cruise speed v and another for referenced
wing area Sref ) for the initial population are randomly
generated. Each set contains 100 chromosomes. Each
chromosome is represented by a 10-bit binary string.
Genetic operators (crossover, mutation) are performed on
a population of such binary string for a series of solution
evolutions. The search process stops and returns the opti-
mal solution when one of the following conditions is sat-
ised: (1) The number of generations reaches 200. (2)
The tness measure J(Sref, v) is reached. (3) The
weighted average changes in the tness function over
100 generations are less than a specied tolerance. (4)
There is no improvement in the tness function for over
50 s. Figure 1 shows the results of the evolution and
convergence of the tness function in GA process. As
Figure 1. Evolution and convergence of the tness function in
the optimization process.
shown in Figure 1, the tness value converges to an
acceptable result rapidly.
The following results are obtained after the comple-
tion of the optimization search routine. The referenced
wing surface area Sref is 1:12 m2 , the cruise speed v is
13:98m/s, the tness function is found to be J(Sref, v)
= 0.1625. That is, the reference area Sref 1:12 m2 and
cruise speed v 13:98 m/s are the optimal solution for
the minimum power operation for YueZhuo aircraft.
Under this condition, the required supply power is
YueZhuo airplane is built, a picture of the airplane is
shown in Figure 2. Table 1 lists the specications of
YueZhuo.
4. Solar power management system
Besides the aerodynamic conguration design, another
key challenge for the design of a solar-powered aircraft
is the design of an efcient and reliable solar power
management system. The purpose of the solar power
management system is to obtain electric energy from the
solar system to support the required power for the air-
craft propulsion system and on-board electronic systems.
A typical solar power management system mainly
includes solar cell panels, maximum power point tracker,
power conversion, battery management, and battery mod-
ules. The major functions of the power management sys-
tem are to provide the required power for the propulsion
and avionics systems and monitor the health and the
availability of the power source. The maximum power
point tracker attempts to obtain the maximum power
available from the solar cell panels. The battery manage-
ment system monitors and controls the energy storage
and delivery of the solar power drawn from the solar cell
panel. The power conversion unit provides a reliable
power source for the propulsion system.
In this research, we use monocrystalline solar cells as
the power source. To accommodate the aircraft
Figure 2. Image of the YueZhuo airplane.
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers 705

Table 1. The specications of UAV YueZhuo.

Cruise speed 13.98 m/s Mass 8 kg

Power required 109.12 W
Fuselage Wing Solar cell
Length 2m Wing span 3.7 m Efcient 18%
Wing surface area 1.12 m2 Area 0.78 m2
Airfoil section MH114 Power supplied 115 W

Horizontal tail Vertical tail Motor

Span 1m Span 0.5 m Mass 0.409 kg

Surface area 0.21 m2 Surface area 0.093 m2 Max. thrust 23.54 Nt.
Airfoil section NACA 0012 Airfoil section NACA0012
Downloaded by [National University of Sciences & Technology] at 12:36 28 September 2015

conguration, the solar cell panels are divided into six

panels with two different sizes, denoted as size A and
size B as indicated in Figure 2. The quantities and speci-
cations of the solar cell panels under standard test con-
ditions (25 C, 1000 W/m2 irradiation) are listed in
Table 2.
The core element to perform the maximum power
point tracking, power conversion, and battery manage-
ment is the dc-to-dc power converter. The supply voltage
from the solar panels may vary rapidly due to fast
changes in atmospheric conditions or sunlight incident
angle (due to fast maneuvers of the UAV). The supply
voltage may be higher or lower than the required voltage
level. To efciently use the limited power from the solar
panels an auto-ranging, non-inverting, synchronous,
buck-boost power converter is developed to maximize
the utilization of the power gained from the solar panels.
The non-inverting buck-boost converter is capable of
converting the source supply voltage to higher and lower
voltages to the load terminal with voltage polarity
unchanged. In this research, a four-switch-type buck-
boost converter is adapted to satisfy the need. A sche-
matic of the synchronous buck-boost circuit is shown in
Figure 3. Four high-speed power MOSFETs (metal oxide
semiconductor eld effect transistor) (Q1 ~ Q4) are
employed to control the energy ow from the supply to
the load terminal.
When the supply voltage is higher than the desired
load voltage, the converter is set up for buck operation.
In buck mode operation, the transistor Q4 is always
Table 2. Solar cell panels.
Size A panel Size B panel
Typical peak power (W) 18.94 17.42
Voltage at peak power (V) 23.54 23.58
Current at peak power (A) 0.805 0.709
Open-circuit voltage (V) 28.34 28.34
Short-circuit current (A) 0.86 0.758
Quantities 6 2
Figure 3. Non-inverting synchronous buck-boost power
converter.
turned on and Q3 is always off. The buck mode opera-
tion is achieved through controlling the power switches
Q1 and Q2. Assuming the duty cycle for charging the
inductor is d, the average load voltage Vout is equal to
dVS for buck operation. The duty cycle is d < 1, thus,
the output voltage Vout can be regulated at a voltage
lower than the supplied voltage VS through controlling
the duty cycle d. When the supply voltage is lower than
the desired load voltage, the converter is set up for boost
operation. In boost mode operation, the transistor Q1 is
always turned on while Q2 is always off. The voltage
regulation is achieved by controlling Q4. The average
load voltage Vout is equal to VS/(1 d). Thus, we can
control the output voltage to be higher than the input
supply voltage. When the supply voltage is close to the
desired load voltage, the converter is set up for buck-
boost operation. In this mode, the transistors Q1 and Q3
work as one group and Q2 and Q4work as another group.
In this mode, the average load voltage Vout is equal to
dVS/(1 d).
From the above, we can regulate the output voltage
to a desired value with the supplied voltage source being
higher or lower than the desired output voltage. The goal
is achieved simply by controlling the duty cycle of the
MOSFET switches. In this design, we selected an
LTC3780 four-switch-type buck-boost controller (from
Linear Technology Corporation) to control the MOSFET
switches for the voltage regulation. The schematic of the
LTC-3780-based power converter is shown in Figure 4.
The resistors R1 and R2 at the output terminal form a
 706 J.-K. Shiau and D.-M. Ma
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Figure 4. Schematic of the LTC3780-based buck-boost power converter.
voltage divider. The voltage Vosense at the output,
obtained from output voltage Vout through the voltage
divider, is regulated to 0.8 V in the LTC3780 controller
as shown in Figure 4. Thus, the output voltage is
regulated to:
 
R1
Vout 0:8  1 (Volts) (20)
R2
To provide the auto-ranging capability, a peripheral inter-
face controller microcontroller-based control unit is
design to automatically control the voltage at the output
terminal or current delivered to the load for specic pur-
pose such as maximum power point tracking or battery
charging. The schematic of the auto-ranging power con-
verter is depicted in Figure 5. As shown in Figure 5, the
output voltage is controlled through controlling the resis-
tance ratio of the output voltage divider. An image of
Figure 5. Schematic of the auto-ranging buck-boost power converter.
the auto-ranging buck-boost power converter is shown in
Figure 6. The buck-boost converter is successfully used
for the maximum power point tracking, Li-ion battery
charging, and voltage regulation for the propulsion sys-
tem on the YueZhuo aircraft.
The major systems required to support the operation
of the YueZhuo aircraft are shown in Figure 7. They
mainly include the solar power management system, avi-
onics and control systems, and ground station. To ensure
ight safety, a hybrid power system is designed for the
YueZhuo aircraft. As shown in Figure 7, the power con-
verter is regulated at 26 V for the propulsion system,
while the backup Li-ion battery will supply 25.2 V when
fully charged. If the power from the solar panels is suf-
cient for ight operation, the output of the converter will
be well regulated at 26 V which will inhibit power from
the battery. On the other hand, if the power from the
solar panel is insufcient for ight operation (especially
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers
Downloaded by [National University of Sciences & Technology] at 12:36 28 September 2015
Figure 6. Image of the auto-ranging buck-boost power converter.
Figure 7. On-board and ground systems of the YueZhuo aircraft.
during takeoff or high dynamic maneuvers), the power
converter will not be able to hold the output voltage at
26 V. The battery will supply power to the aircraft. At
the instance of battery supplying power to the aircraft,
the load for the power converter is reduced which leads
to an increase of the output voltage. A balance of the
power from power converter and the Li-ion battery will
be reached eventually.
The avionics and control system on the Yuezhou air-
craft is an Arduino-based Ardupilot system from DIYDro-
nes Inc. The system mainly contains an inertial
707
measurement unit (IMU) board, a UAV control board, and
a GPS receiver. The UAV control board contains a high-
performance ATmega1280 microcontroller. The IMU
board contains a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis acceler-
ometer, an absolute pressure sensor, and a temperature
sensor. The power required for the avionics and control
systems are from the electric speed controller which
obtains power from the solar power management system.
The Ardupilot UAV control board collects the aircraft atti-
tude, airspeed, and GPS information and transmits them to
the ground station through Xbee wireless communication.
 708 J.-K. Shiau and D.-M. Ma

Table 3. The mass and moment of inertia.

Item Mass (kg) Distance to quarter chord (m) Moment (Nt-m) Moment of inertia (kg-m2)
Wing 4.400 0.09 3.885 0.004
Tail 1.100 0.83 8.957 0.652
Main gear 0.700 0.34 2.335 0.055
Nose gear 0.742 0.645 4.690 0.369
Motor 0.610 0.787 4.704 0.438
Fuselage 1.500 0.03 0.441 0.012
Total 9.052 0.060 5.322 1.530

5. Preight and ight test environment and to verify that these characteristics are
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Preight testing is critical to the success of any ight test
program. Preight tests are performed to measure and
evaluate the characteristics of a UAV in a non-ying
as desired. Proper preight testing helps ensure that the
UAV is ready to y and contributes toward an efcient,
productive, and safe ight test program. There are sev-
eral parts of preight testing, such as wind tunnel tests,
simulation tests, propulsion tests, weight and balance
tests, ground vibration tests, structural loads tests, gain
margin tests, verication and calibration tests, and taxi
tests, that are usually accomplished prior to ying a new
or highly modied aircraft (Stoliker 2005). In the
YueZhuo program, only the weight and balance tests,
propulsion tests, and taxi tests were accomplished before
ight. The following paragraphs describe the tests.

Figure 8. The measuring of the center of gravity.

Figure 10. The voltage changes with the power setting.

Figure 9. The installed engine ground test. Figure 11. The taxi test.
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers 709

5.1. Weight and balance tests

The objective of these tests is to obtain the weight,
moments of inertia, and centers of gravity, of the
YueZhuo airplane. Weight and balance data were initially
obtained through analytical bookkeeping techniques.
The weight and location of each component of the UAV
is determined and stored into an EXCEL le (as shown in
Table 3) that calculates total aircraft weight, moments of
inertia, and centers of gravity based on the contribution of
all the individual components. Total aircraft weight and
balance characteristics can be accurately determined by
this method if considerable care is taken in accounting for
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Figure 12. Image of the YueZhuo aircraft in the air. all individual components. The neutral point of YueZhuo

Figure 13. Takeoff trajectory.

Figure 14. The landing trajectory-1.

 710 J.-K. Shiau and D.-M. Ma
is located after the wing quarter chord line by 0.109 m
and the static margin is 12.58%. To measure the center of
gravity, two students stand by the sides of the UAV and
lift it as shown in Figure 8. When the balance is achieved
the center of gravity is determined.
5.2. Propulsion tests
Installed engine ground tests are accomplished to deter-
mine the thrust provided by the engine as installed in the
airframe. The engine is operated on the ground with a
spring gage attached at several steady conditions from
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idle to maximum thrust (Figure 9). The propulsion is
powered by the hybrid power supply as shown in
Figure 7. In the propulsion test, the power is controlled
to gradually increase from idle to 100%. After that the
power setting is gradually decreased back to idle condi-
tion. Test results are shown in Figure 10. When the
power setting is low, the voltage from the solar power
management system is 26 V as expected. When the
power setting is increased to a point that the solar power
is insufcient to support the need, the battery starts to
deliver power to the propulsion system. As indicated in
Figure 10, voltage balance is reached when the solar
power and the battery both power the propulsion system.
When the power setting reduces to a point that the solar
power is capable of supporting the operation of the
engine alone, the output voltage from the solar power
system will rise to 26 V again and stop power delivery
from the battery.
5.3. Taxi tests
Taxi tests are conducted primarily to verify the landing
gear shimmy characteristics, and ground handling
Figure 15. The landing trajectory-2.
characteristics. These tests are usually the last ground
tests done prior to ight. They provide nal verication
that the UAV, with all systems fully operational, is ready
for rst ight. Figure 11 shows the taxi test which took
at the sport track of Tamkang University, on 17 August
2012.
5.4. Flight test
YueZhuo successfully took its maiden ight at Xisheng
aireld, Xinzhuang, New Taipei City, on 18 August
2012. The ight time was about 15 min. Referring to
Figure 7, an XBee transmitter (Xbee B) on the upper
left is used to transmit the output voltage of the power
converter. Another XBee transmitter (Xbee A) on the
lower right is used to transmit the data from Ardupilot
Mega, which include the data of GPS, IMU, and Air
speed packages. Unfortunately, there are no data
received from Xbee B and the data from Xbee A are
only part of takeoff, and a small portion of the cruise
before landing, and the landing. Although no data were
available for verifying the power converter, the charac-
teristic of solar power management system was still
veried, since the Li-ion battery itself can only supply
sufcient power for ight for 10 min. Figure 12 is an
image of the YueZhuo aircraft in the air. Figures 1315
are the takeoff and landing trajectories which are estab-
lished from the telemetry data. Figures 16 and 17
are the airspeed and altitude histories for the portions
of cruise before landing and landing, the abscissa axis
is the number of data-sets since no time tag was
transmitted. Referring to the gures, the average cruise
altitude is about 50 m and the average airspeed
during cruise is 10 m/s, and 14 m/s is the maximum
airspeed.
 Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers
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Figure 16. The altitude history.
Figure 17. The airspeed history.
6. Conclusions
This paper reports the design, implementation, and test
of a solar-powered UAV. The major achievements of this
research include the optimization of aerodynamic perfor-
mance design based on a mass parameterization
approach and the design of a solar power management
system with microcontroller controlled buck-boost power
converter. For aerodynamic performance design, the
mass of the aircraft is parameterized as a function of the
wing reference area and cruise speed. With the parame-
terization results, an optimization problem is formulated.
A tness function that links the optimization problem
and the genetic algorithm is established. The solution is
obtained using Matlab genetic algorithm tool. Based on
the optimization results, a solar-powered UAV is then
built. Parallel to the design and manufacturing of the
711
airplane, an auto-ranging, non-inverting, synchronous,
buck-boost power converter is developed to support the
need for solar power management for the YueZhuo air-
craft. The system includes solar cell panels, maximum
power point tracker, and power conversion. The auto-
ranging buck-boost power converter is used to perform
the maximum power point tracking, power conversion,
and battery charging function. After successfully going
through a series of laboratory tests and necessary pre-
ight tests, the solar-powered UAV successfully took its
maiden ight on 18 August 2012.
Nomenclature
L lift force (kgw)
D drag force (kgw)
W weight of the airplane (kgw)
 712 J.-K. Shiau and D.-M. Ma

Tr thrust force (kgw) Funding

v cruise velocity (m/s) This work was partially supported by the National Science
air density at the designated altitude (kg/m3) Council, Taiwan, Republic of China [grant number
Sref referenced wing area (m2) NSC100-2221-E-032-061]; partially supported by an in-house
CD drag coefcient research project from Tamkang University, Taiwan.
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