Development of a High Power Density Drive System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power electronics Vol. 36; no. 3; pp. 3159 - 3171
• Main Authors: Schiestl, Martin, Marcolini, Federico, Incurvati, Maurizio, Capponi, Fabio Giulii, Starz, Ronald, Caricchi, Federico, Rodriguez, Alejandro Secades, Wild, Lukas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aerospace safety; Converters; Density measurement; fault tolerance; gallium nitride; integrated design; motor drives; Permanent magnets; Power electronics; Power system measurements; Propellers; Reliability; Resilience; thermal analysis; thermal modeling; Unmanned aerial vehicles; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); variable speed drives
• ISSN: 0885-8993; 1941-0107
• DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2020.3013899

Unmanned aerial vehicles are characterized by a set of requirements, like high efficiency, resiliency, and reliability that conflict with the other main requirement of high power density aimed at minimizing the overall weight and size. This article proposes a novel, modular multiphase drive for a quadrotor drone, realized through the integration of an axial flux permanent magnet machine and a GaN-based power electronic converter. After an overview of the design process, starting from the propeller choice, a brief description of the system components is presented. Focusing specifically on the power electronic converter, the article then presents a full analysis of its electrical and thermal performance. Extensive experimental tests allows to validate the predictions of the design and simulation stages and demonstrated the expected high power density levels.