Desenvolvimento de um veículo aéreo não tripulado alimentado por células fotovoltaicas flexíveis para aumento da autonomia de voo.

Abstract

This work shows the development of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with flexible photovoltaic cells arranged on its wings in order to harness the sun’s energy to increase flight autonomy. The development begins with the definition of the main components of the UAV, which goes through aerodynamic and performance analyses. Afterwards, the sizing of the photovoltaic panel is done and finally the manufacture and flight test. In the manufacturing process, hot wire CNC machines and 3d printer were used. The methodo logy that was used for the aeronautical project of the UAV is from models proposed by the literature of (ANDERSON, 1999) and (RAYMER, 1992) and the result was an aircraft with autonomy of 8h15min, with low cost manufacturing, with 2.90 meters wingspan, aspect ratio (AR) of 11.8, mass of 2.89 kg and the solar panel managed to provide an increase of 816% of flight range.