Study on the environmental adaptability of lithium-ion battery powered UAV under extreme temperature conditions

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have more and more potential in the emergency rescue tasks under disastrous conditions. Thus, the environmental adaptability of UVAs under extreme high and low temperature levels is very important. Firstly, we built an extreme environmental testing chamber that could simulate multiple disaster conditions. Secondly, the performance of the whole machine of UVAs especially the flying performance under extreme temperature (−30–60 °C) was investigated. Thirdly, the electrical performance of lithium-ion battery used in UVAs was investigated at the same time. Main conclusions were: (1) The high temperature condition even 60 °C had little effect on the flying performance, while significantly degraded the lifetime and discharging capacity, and even damaged the lithium-ion battery. (2) The low temperature condition significantly decreased the flying performance and the battery performance. UAV could not work normally when the environmental temperature was below −25 °C. (3) The low-temperature condition played greater effect on the battery performance than that of high-temperature condition and the testing results of battery discharge experiments well explained this phenomenon. (4) The irreversible and the reversible heat took the dominant role for lower and high temperatures, respectively.