The NederDrone: A hybrid lift, hybrid energy hydrogen UAV

C De Wagter,B Remes,E Smeur,F Van Tienen,R Ruijsink,K Van Hecke,E Van Der Horst

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.02.053

C De Wagter, B Remes + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2021.02.053

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Abstract

Many Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) applications require vertical take-off and landing and very long-range capabilities. Fixed-wing aircraft need long runways to land, and electric energy is still a bottleneck for helicopters, which are not range efficient. In this paper, we introduce the NederDrone, a hybrid lift, hybrid energy hydrogen-powered UAV that can perform vertical take-off and landings using its 12 propellers while flying efficiently in forward flight thanks to its fixed wings. The energy is supplied from a combination of hydrogen-driven Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel-cells for endurance and lithium batteries for high-power situations. The hydrogen is stored in a pressurized cylinder around which the UAV is optimized. This work analyses the selection of the concept, the implemented safety elements, the electronics and flight control and shows flight data including a 3h38 flight at sea while starting and landing from a small moving ship.

Highlights

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) offer solutions in a large variety of applications [1]
Tail-sitters pitch down 90 during the transition from hover to forward flight, and while they have important drawbacks for pilot comfort [4], they have gained a lot of new interest for UAV
The autopilot software is the Paparazzi-UAV autopilot [64,65] project, which has support for various key features like low-level Controller Area Network (CAN) drivers to Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (INDI) control implementations for hybrid aircraft, together with the ability to create custom modules to interface with the fuel-cell systems

Summary

Introduction

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) offer solutions in a large variety of applications [1]. While a lot of applications can be performed with current battery technology, for many others the energy requirements cannot be met [2]. When combined with the requirement to have Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capabilities, the traditional efficient fixedwing aircraft concept is not an option For these applications, hybrid concepts have been proposed, namely combinations of efficient fixed-wings and hovering rotorcraft. Tail-sitters pitch down 90 during the transition from hover to forward flight, and while they have important drawbacks for pilot comfort [4], they have gained a lot of new interest for UAV. They do not require any mechanical reconfiguration and allow the re-use of the same propulsion systems in several phases of the flight [5]. Other tail-sitters were optimized for maximal redundancy [8] or were given re-configurable wings to minimize sensitivity to gusts in hover [9]

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