Development of a Simulation Platform for Hybrid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with VTOL capabilities

Unmanned aerial vehicles are founding an increasing number of applications. Features of adopted propulsion system affect vehicle performances in terms of autonomy and maneuverability constraining these possible applications. Hybrid propulsion layouts typically exploit a fixed wing to assure high autonomy and an integrated multi-rotor system to improve maneuverability allowing functionalities such as VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) or hovering which are typical of rotating wing solutions such helicopters, quadcopters etc. Also, for what concern adopted power sources, usage of fossil fuels still assures an optimal energy density ratio that is still quite superior respect to more advanced electric storage systems which are more flexible in terms of regulation. So also, for what concern on board power sources hybridization should offer remarkable advantages. In this work authors introduce a modular simulation model that should be used for design simulation and optimization of unmanned aerial platforms that conjugate hybridization both in terms of adopted propulsion and power management.