Case Studies:

Design of Solar Powered Airplanes

Philipp Oettershagen, Autonomous Systems Lab

philipp.oettershagen@mavt.ethz.ch

Autonomous Systems Lab Fixed Wing UAS: Control and Fuel Case Studies | 23.11.2015 | 14
Introduction: Why Solar Powered Flight?

 Motivations
Today, realization of Solar Airplanes for continuous flight is possible
 efficient and flexible solar cells (1st solar cell in 1954)
 High energy density batteries
 Miniaturized MEMS and CMOS sensors
 Small and powerful processors
 Lightweight construction techniques

 Goals
Study the feasibility of solar powered sustained flight
Develop a conceptual design methodology
Provide overview and design examples of fixed-wing UAVs

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Working Principle of Solar-Electric Airplanes

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Possible Solar UAS Applications

www.telegraph.co.uk
Yingxiu, May 15th 2008
Disaster Scenario / Search and Rescue Agricultural and industrial inspection

Wildfires in California October 2007 Altair/SR

Early Wildfire Detection High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE)

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Introduction – History of Solar Flight

 Premises of solar aviation with model

airplanes
 first flight of a solar-powered airplane:
4th Nov. 1974, Sunrise I & II (Boucher, US)
Wingspan 9.76 m Sunrise II, 1975
Mass 12.25 kg
4480 solar cells  600 W; Max duration: 3 hours

 In Europe, H. Bruss & F. Militky with

Solaris in 1975
 Since then, this hobby became „affordable“ Solaris, 1976

MikroSol, PiciSol, NanoSol 1995-1998 Solar Excel, 1990

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Introduction – History of Solar Flight

 The dream of manned solar flight

Solar Riser, 1979
 first attempts : battery charged on the ground
with solar power  then flights of some minutes
(Solar One of Fred To (UK) in 1978 and Solar Riser
from Larry Mauro (US) in 1979)

 1st solar manned flight without energy storage:

Gossamer Penguin of Dr. MacCready (US) in 1979. Gossamer Penguin, 1980

 Next version: Solar Challenger crossed the

English channel in 1981

Solar Challenger, 1981

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Introduction – History of Solar Flight

 The dream of manned solar flight Solair I, 1981

 In 1983, Günter Rochelt (D) flies Solair I
during 5 hours 41 minutes
 In 1986, Eric Raymond (US) starts building
Sunseeker, 1990
Sunseeker. In 1990, he crossed the USA in 21
solar-powered flights with 121 hours in the air
 In 1996, Icare 2 wins the “Berblinger Contest”
in Ulm (D).
Icare 2, 1996
 In 2010, SolarImpulse A flies through the night
(26h fully sustained flight)
 In 2015, SolarImpulse B flies for 117h 52min
(World Endurance and Range record for solar-
powered manned airplanes) Solarimpulse, 2010

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Introduction – History
of Solar Flight
 The way to High Altitude Long
Endurance (HALE) platforms

 1st continuous flight: Alan Cocconi of

AcPropulsion built SoLong in 2005
 Use of Solar Power and Thermals Solong, 2005
22nd of April 2005 : 24 hours 11 min
3rd of June 2005 : 48 hours 16 min

 Qinetiq (UK) built Zephyr in 2005

 December 2005 : 6 hours at 7’925 m
 July 2006 : 18 hours flight
(7 during night)
 Sept 2007 : 53 hours
 August 2008 : 83 hours
 July 2010: 336 hours (world flight endurance record)

Zephyr, 2005
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High Altitude Long Endurance platforms today
Airbus - Zephyr Facebook - Aquila Google - Titan

22.86 m 42 m 50 m

50 kg 400 kg 160 kg

19.8 km 18-28 km 19 km

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Solar-Electric Airplane Conceptual Design

Various missions Various payload Choice of Design

requirements Variables

• High Altitude Long • Sensors • Wingspan

Endurance (cameras) • Aspect Ratio
(HALE) • Communication • Battery Size
• Low Atmosphere links
Surveillance • Processing power
• Different degrees • Navigation system
of autonomy • Human?
• Mars mission?

How do I do this?
What performance can I expect?

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Solar-powered UAV Conceptual Design: A Tool
Design variables
Design variables:
Technological parameters (inputs)
Wingspan, aspect ratio,
User parameters (inputs)
battery mass
Performance metrics (outputs)

Technological
parameters:
Efficiencies, mass Core Module:
models, rib or shell wing Aerodynamics
Power Train Mass Estimation
Structure Dimensioning
Payload
Mass, power consumption
Masses Polars Run (constrained)
optimization
Environment
Altitude, latitude,
longitude, day, ...
Performance Evaluation
Mode of Operation: Simulation of the Day
Allow variable altitude
yes/no

Endurance / [8]: S. Leutenegger, M. Jabas, and R. Y. Siegwart.

Max. Altitude for Solar Airplane Conceptual Design and
Excess Time / Continuous Flight Performance Estimation. Journal of Intelligent and
Charge margin Robotic Systems, Vol. 61, No. 1-4, pp. 545-561

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 Performance Metrics (1/2)

Case 1: Power
Endurance
• Perpetual flight not possible
• Performance metric:
Solar
• Tend (Endurance). Tend can be Required E_bat Power
>24h (even though continuous Power
flight is not possible)

Case 2:
• Perpetual flight possible 12 h 24 h Time
• Performance metrics:
• Excess time Texc Power
• Minimum state of charge Solar Excess
• Charge margin Tcm Power time
Required E_bat
Power

12 h 24 h Time
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Performance Metrics (2/2)
Ebat Battery energy [J]
SoC Battery state of charge [%]
If perpetual flight is possible, we define: nom
Pout Nominal required output power [W]

In the conceptual design phase, we optimize both Texc and Tcm to

generate sufficient safety margins for perpetual flight!

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Basic System Modeling (1/2)

 Forward-integration of state equations:

 Power modeling

I Solar irradiance [W/m²]

I = I (day,t,lat,h) Asm Solar module area [m²]
ηsm, ηmppt Solar module and maximum power point
tracker efficiency [-]
Pav, Ppld Avionics and payload power [W]
ηprop Propulsion system efficiency
mtot Total airplane mass

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Basic System Modeling (2/2)
To derive the level flight power (constant altitude flight), we combine

with v Airspeed [m/s]

Awing Wing area [m²]
CD, CL Drag / Lift coefficients [-]
ρ Local air density [kg/m³]

and minimize the resulting expression w.r.t. the airspeed to yield

CD and CL are functions of the airspeed v! They are

retrieved from airplane and airfoil analysis tools such as
XFOIL or XFLR5.

Example (see image): AtlantikSolar UAV, MH139 airfoil, mtot=6.9kg,

Awing=1.7m², vopt=7.6m/s, Plevel=21W.

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Mass Models (1/2)

 Scaling of mass seems

easy at first glance [6,7]:

W  L  mg  b3

S  b2
W /S  b 1
W / S  k1  W 3
[6]

(Assumption: Geometric similarity)

Autonomous Systems Lab Fixed Wing Aircraft | |

Mass Models (2/2)

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Improvements to the
Mass Models

 Structure mass is
depending on:
 Payload (mass)
 Payload location/distribution
 Wing geometry (also airfoil!)
 Structure concept
 Load cases

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Example: Solar
Powered Airliner?
 Payload 100 passengers, 12000 kg
 Speed: 600 km/h
 Height: 12 km:  = 0.31 kg/m3
 Wing area and mass for AR=10:
b2 2mg
CL  0.5  A   2
AR V CL
m  m pld  m propulsion mstruct
3.1
b
 m pld  0.043  AR 0.25kg
m
 m ≈ 13 t (unrealistically light),
b ≈ 24 m, A ≈ 57 m2
 Power for level flight / Drag:
Assume glide ratio 1:30  CD=CL/30 It is – unfortunately – far
 from being realistic…
Plevel  AC DV 3  680 kW
2
 Solar Power Irradiance: max. 1.4 kW/m2
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Conceptual Design Results (1/1)

 Low-altitude
perpetual flight
(700m AMSL)
 Current
technology
 Aspect ratio 12
 Minimal payload:
0.6kg, 7W
 Latitude
37.34°N
 June 21
 Skyclear

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 Solar-powered UAV Design Example

 Hand-launchable and rapidly AtlantikSolar UAV

Wingspan 5.65 m
deployable Mass 6.9 kg
Nominal cruise speed 10 m/s
 Fully autonomous, minimal Minimum endurancea 13 hrs
supervisory requirements Record endurance 81.5 hrs
Max. solar power 280 W
 Versatile sensor payload Power consumption 43 W
a – full battery with no solar charging

For student projects, please contact us!

Autonomous Systems Lab | |
(e.g. philipp.oettershagen@mavt.ethz.ch)
Flight-endurance record: 81h flight (14.07.15)

 Conditions
 Excellent irradiance
 Significant thermals
during the day

 Achievements
 Duration: 81h23m
 Distance: 2316km
 Av. airspeed: 8.6 m/s
 P_mean: 43W+15W
 SoCmin: 39%  Continuous flight proven to be
 World record in flight feasible with good energetic margins
endurance for all and without using thermals or
aircrafts with mtot<50kg potential energy storage
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Technical Progress and Scaling Considerations
Energy Generation and Storage

Absolute SkySailor SenseSoar AtlantikSolar

Characteristics (2008) (2012) (2014)
mtot 2.5kg 5.1kg 7.0kg Slow but steady
Wing span 3.2m 3.1m 5.6m progress on PV and
Battery mass 1.05kg 1.9kg 2.9kg battery technology!
Aspect ratio 13 12 18.5
Psolarmax 90W 140W 280W But sensors and
Ebat 252Wh 460Wh 710Wh
avionics have
minituarized, too.
Technological SkySailor SenseSoar AtlantikSolar
Progress (2008) (2012) (2014)
ηSolarModule 17% 19% 23%
ebat 240Wh/kg 245Wh/kg 255Wh/kg
(Li-Ion) (Li-Ion) (Li-Ion)
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Avionics Perception
Communication Autopilot and Sensors Sensorpod
External cameras

Pixhawk PX4
Primary: 3DR radio
Autopilot

Long-Range: Iridium IMU: ADIS16448

SATCOM
GoPro Hero 3 silver

Airspeed Sensing:
Radio control: Sensirion SDP600 Optical cameras:
Spektrum Aptina MT9V034,
IDS UI-3251LE

GPS: U-Blox Lea-6H Thermal camera:

First person view FLIR Tau 2 Sony HDR AS100V
uBlox
goggles

Robust EKF-based Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)

APPLICATIONS State estimation Human detection
Leutenegger, S.; Melzer, A.; Alexis, K.; Siegwart, R.,
"Robust state estimation for small unmanned
Agricultural inspection
airplanes," in Control Applications (CCA), 2014

Autonomous Systems Lab | |

Sensorpod: Sensor and Processing Unit
Visual-inertial SLAM sensor

 Developed at ETH Zurich

 FPGA board for visual-inertial odometry
 Hardware synchronized IMU and
camera data
 Up to four cameras

Janosch Nikolic, Joern Rehder, Michael Burri, Pascal Gohl,

Stefan Leutenegger, Paul T Furgale, Roland Siegwart,
A synchronized visual-inertial sensor system with FPGA
pre-processing for accurate real-time SLAM, Robotics and
Automation (ICRA), 2014 IEEE International Conference on,
pp.431–437, 2014
Autonomous Systems Lab | |
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References
[1] B.W. McCormick. Aerodynamics, Aeronautics and Flight Mechanics – 2nd Edition. John Wiley &
Sons, 1995
[2] J. Wildi. Grundlagen der Flugtechnik / Ausgewählte Kapitel der Flugtechnik. Lecture Notes ETH
Zurich
[3] B. Etkin. Dynamics of Atmospheric Flight. Dover Publications, 2005
[4] G. J. J. Ducard. Fault-Tolerant Flight Control and Guidance Systems for a Small Unmanned Aerial
Vehicle. PhD Thesis ETH Zurich No. 17505, 2007
[5] R.W. Beard and T.W. McLain. Small Unmanned Aircraft: Theory and Practice. Princeton University
Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780691149219.
[6] A. Noth. Design of Solar Powered Airplanes for Continuous Flight. PhD Thesis ETH Zurich No.
18010, 2008
[7] H. Tennekes. The Simple Science of Flight. From Insects to Jumbo Jets. Revised and Expanded
Edition, 2009. MIT Press. Paperback ISBN 978-0-262-51313-5
[8] S. Leutenegger, M. Jabas, and R. Y. Siegwart. Solar Airplane Conceptual Design and Performance
Estimation. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, Vol. 61, No. 1-4, pp. 545-561, DOI:
10.1007/s10846-010-9484-x

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Thanks for your attention! Questions?

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