Design of Solar Powered Quadcopter

Project Title

Design of Solar Powered Quadcopter

Project Area of Specialization Mechatronics EngineeringProject Summary

The project titled “design of solar-powered quadcopter” aims to develop a hybrid solar-powered quadcopter, that will fulfill its energy needs from the sun and a battery. This project provides the solution to the short time of flight of quadcopter by using the energy from the sun that is clean and self-sustaining. The design of this project will be the same as that of a simple quadcopter but instead of using a battery as the sole energy source, solar cells will also be used.

            As applications of the multirotor depend upon their time of flight so by increasing their time of flight their application range can be increased greatly. Currently, quadcopters are being used for parcel delivery over short distances, industrial monitoring, videography, surveillance, and in agriculture as a sprayer, etc. But this application range can be greatly increased by increasing the time of flight. Hence, if this idea is used for multirotors commercially, it will greatly increase the application range of quadcopters.

Project Objectives

Following are the objectives of this project:

1. To design the frame and propellers of a quadcopter.
2. To analyze the design of the frame and propeller.
3. To manufacture a quadcopter harvesting its energy requirements from the sun.

Project Implementation Method

The project will be accomplished in the following steps:

1. The first step is the selection of an aim and thrust to weight ratio for the quadcopter. After the selection of thrust to weight ratio for the quadcopter, a combination of motors and solar panels will be obtained that will satisfy the fixed thrust to weight ratio.
2. After the selection of motors and solar panels is done, the specification of other components will be done. Then the design will be check theoretically while considering all the inefficiencies of the electrical components.
3. After the theoretical check, a propeller will be designed according to the needs of the motor selected and a CREO model will be prepared for the quadcopter. Then the structural analyses will be performed on the frame. Propeller performance and propeller motor combination analyses will be done.
4. After the successful designing and software analyses of the design, a wooden model will be prepared to test out the design manufacturing feasibility.
5. Then the final step will be to fabricate a frame and assemble all the parts.

Benefits of the Project

This project addresses the major problem of small time of flight of multi-rotors encountered by the multirotor industry. The project presents a solution to the problem by introducing the use of a supplementary power source along with the battery in the drones. The supplementary power source used in this project is solar power. This will greatly increase the time of flight of the quadcopter. This increase in time of flight of the quadcopter will increase the range of its applications from small distance parcel delivery and videography to long-distance parcel delivery, first aid rescue missions, disaster monitoring, surveillance, etc.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

A solar-powered quadcopter is a multi-rotor that will harvest some of its energy needs from the sun. It will do so by using a solar cell array mounted on it. Just like normal UAV, it will be able to hover and will be capable of vertical take-off and landing but it will have an increased time of flight as compared to other multirotors available in the market. The difference will be that its size will be a bit larger than other quadcopters. The final deliverable includes a solar-powered quadcopter that is capable of supplementing some portion of its energy needs from the sun. It’s this capability of not relying fully on upon on the sun will allow it to have a longer time of flight. The longer time of flight will increase the narrow range of applications of the project from parcel delivery and videography to first-aid missions, long hour surveillance, and industrial monitoring. The final deliverable hardware will include motors, electronic speed controller, power distribution board, receiver, transmitter, frame structure, solar cells, propellers, and charge controller.

Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry OthersOther Industries Media , Security Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies Clean TechSustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Climate ActionRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	79435
Motors	Equipment	4	4000	16000
Electronic Speed Controller	Equipment	4	4200	16800
Flight Controller	Equipment	1	7735	7735
Solar Cells	Equipment	50	580	29000
Printing	Miscellaneous	300	3	900
Market Survey	Miscellaneous	1	3000	3000
Circuit testing	Miscellaneous	1	4000	4000
Preliminary Frame Design	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000