Feasibility study of a solar powered hybrid micro-aerial vehicle

Micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) are finding new applications every day, from surveillance to civil structure health monitoring and exciting photography. Parallel advancements in ultra-thin, high power-to-weight ratio (PWR) solar panels are paving the way for sustained flight, especially for MAVs that are heavily dependent on the limited energy density of batteries. There is renewed interest in solar-powered MAVs, which can offer unprecedented flight times on sunny days. In this context, we propose a solar-powered hybrid MAV configuration, named ’Solar Swifter’ that combines the performance of a quadcopter, allowing vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), with the capabilities of a fixed-wing aircraft for conventional cruise flight. Preliminary analysis has shown that with just 1.9 W from ultrahigh PWR air-stable solar panels (Organic Photovoltaic, OPV), an MAV with a mass of 51g can achieve vertical take-off and fly at 8m/s. This performance can be further enhanced by using a lower aspect ratio wing, resulting in a square-shaped wing. The next step in developing the Solar Swifter is to investigate the aerodynamic effects of a fan-in-wing configuration at low Reynolds numbers, which has not been studied in the past.