Design and Modeling of a Hybrid Fuel Cell-Photovoltaic Power System for a Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft

Unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs) are being utilized for a variety of applications which include: medical deliveries, agriculture analysis, spraying, photography, and military purposes. Many of these UAVs are powered by batteries. Battery-powered drones, despite their advantages, such as low cost and ease of maintenance, are unable to fly for long periods of time. To address the problem, this paper proposes a hybrid Fuel Cell-Photovoltaic (FCPV) power system combined with a bank of batteries. Including additional energy sources such as fuel cells and solar cells with the battery can provide longer flight times. The feasibility and analysis of an FCPV-powered fixed-wing aircraft are examined in this paper. This hypothesis will be validated based on the simulation results.