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A solar-powered hand-launchable UAV for low-altitude multi-day continuous flight

  • Philipp Oettershagen
  • , Amir Melzer
  • , Thomas Mantel
  • , Konrad Rudin
  • , Rainer Lotz
  • , Dieter Siebenmann
  • , Stefan Leutenegger
  • , Kostas Alexis
  • , Roland Siegwart
  • ETH Zurich

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

93 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper presents the conceptual design, detailed development and flight testing of AtlantikSolar, a 5.6m-wingspan solar-powered Low-Altitude Long-Endurance (LALE) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) designed and built at ETH Zurich. The UAV is required to provide perpetual endurance at a geographic latitude of 45°N in a 4-month window centered around June 21st. An improved conceptual design method is presented and applied to maximize the perpetual flight robustness with respect to local meteorological disturbances such as clouds or winds. Airframe, avionics hardware, state estimation and control method development for autonomous flight operations are described. Flight test results include a 12-hour flight relying solely on batteries to replicate night-flight conditions. In addition, we present flight results from Search-And-Rescue field trials where a camera and processing pod were mounted on the aircraft to create high-fidelity 3D-maps of a simulated disaster area.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2015
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages3986-3993
Number of pages8
EditionJune
ISBN (Electronic)9781479969234
DOIs
StatePublished - 29 Jun 2015
Externally publishedYes
Event2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2015 - Seattle, United States
Duration: 26 May 201530 May 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
NumberJune
Volume2015-June
ISSN (Print)1050-4729

Conference

Conference2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySeattle
Period26/05/1530/05/15

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