The Comparison of Energy Sources Used in Unmanned Air Vehicles

Abstract

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are intelligent systems that have been among the most popular technologies. UAVs have been used in many different areas, such as military, monitoring, entertainment, academic, engineering, search and rescue, border security, surveillance, cargo transportation. UAVs are the air vehicles that can be controlled by a remote control or which can move according to their abilities by means of autonomous software. Because of technological advances and facilitating the supply of used materials, the number of UAVs is increasing day by day. According to the usage area, UAVs have got many advantages and disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is undoubtedly low flight times. The low flight time of UAVs brings problems occur in accomplishing certain tasks. In order to overcome this problem, the studies are being carried out to develop energy sources. Lithium Ion (Li-ion), Lithium Ferrous Phosphate (LiFePO4), Lithium Polymer (LiPo) and Lithium Titanate batteries are used in the UAV flights. In this study, a review is presented about UAV energy sources used in past and present. In addition, the future trends in the energy sources has been examined for UAVs.

Keywords: Energy Source, Battery, LiPo, Solar Panel, PEM.

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/5-6-05