Integrated Solar Power Harvesting and Hibernation for a Recurrent-Mission VTOL Micro Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

This work addresses the electronics and behaviors of a Hibernation-Enabled Maximum-Power-Point-Tracking power converter and power management system. This enables a Recurrent-Mission profile that can be performed by VTOL Micro Aerial Vehicles for persistent presence in real-world unstructured environments. The typical mission cycle consists of solar energy harvesting while the vehicle is landed and in an energy-conserving state, followed by a vertical take-off and entry into forward flight when the battery is fully charged. The flight mission is concluded with a vertical landing and entry into hibernation for the process to repeat indefinitely, for multiple instances each day and through the night to the next day. The presented MPPT implementation demonstrates a functional prototype and the successful demonstration of a multi-day mission cycle using our open-access Tricopter/Fixed-Wing Vertical Take-Off and Landing MAV.