A Versatile Converter and Consolidated Energy Management Scheme for Modern AAVs

This article presents a versatile power converter and a hybrid energy source propulsion system for reliable, lightweight, and extended flight endurance autonomous aerial vehicles. The proposed converter is designed to operate in various configurations to meet different flight mission requirements. It efficiently harvests power from solar panels, fuel cells, and a battery without requiring an additional converter in multiple working conditions. Furthermore, when the aircraft is in rest mode, the converter can act in power factor correction converter mode. The proposed converter can minimize the number of components by integrating step-up and step-down operation capabilities as required for the objective. A brushless dc motor is used as the propulsion motor in the system because of its distinct benefits and unique features. Moreover, this work also discusses a unique technique to emulate the avionic load subsystem. The system is initially simulated using MATLAB/Simulink, and then it is verified on a real-time test bench.