Conceptual Design and Analysis Tool for solar-powered UAVs

Based on

• Philipp Oettershagen, Amir Melzer, Thomas Mantel, Konrad Rudin, Thomas Stastny, Bartosz Wawrzacz, Timo Hinzmann, Stefan Leutenegger, Kostas Alexis, Roland Siegwart, Design of small hand‐launched solar‐powered UAVs: From concept study to a multi‐day world endurance record flight, Journal of Field Robotics 34 (7), 1352-1377 . http://www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/JFR_81hFlight_paper_final.pdf
• Philipp Oettershagen, Amir Melzer, Thomas Mantel, Konrad Rudin, Rainer Lotz, Dieter Siebenmann, Stefan Leutenegger, Kostas Alexis and Roland Siegwart, A Solar-Powered Hand-Launchable UAV for Low-Altitude Multi-Day Continuous Flight, International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2015. http://www.atlantiksolar.ethz.ch/wp-content/downloads/publications/AtlantikSolar_ICRA_2015_vFinal.pdf
• Stefan Leutenegger, Mathieu Jabas, Roland Y. Siegwart, Solar Airplane Conceptual Design and Performance Estimation, Journal of Intelligent & Robotic Systems (2011), Volume 61, Issue 1, pp 545-561.
• A. Noth, Design of solar powered airplanes for continuous flight, PhD thesis, ETH Zurich, 2008. http://www.asl.ethz.ch/research/asl/skysailor/Design_of_Solar_Powered_Airplanes_for_Continuous_Flight

Usage

Run

• AirplaneDesign.m to design your airplane (design variables are wing span b, aspect ratio AR, and battery mass m_bat) and analyse its performance (in the form of excess time t_exc, charge margin t_cm, endurance t_endurance, and minimum state-of-charge SoC).
• AirplaneAnalysis.m to analyse your designed airplane with respect to a) other days of the year or other latitudes or b) meteorological disturbances (clouds or winds) in the form of the clearness and turbulence values.