Fault-tolerant switched reluctance motor propulsion system for eVTOLs

Abstract eVTOLs are receiving a lot of attention as potential solution to urban air mobility challenges. Many configurations multirotors, which open loop unstable, therefore very susceptible actuator failures. Due their usually short mission duration (20-30 min), fault-tolerance the propulsion system is greater importance then reliability. Thus, novel approaches enhance this capability required. This study proposes new fault-tolerant using 4-phase switched reluctance motors. It designed for an 8-10 kg scale multirotor eVTOL, replace redundant coaxial brushless DC motors with single drive. Acknowledging role control algorithms, validated in terms loss effectiveness metric, typically used evaluation solutions. The motor was found be highly resilient phase and current sensor faults, but position faults. can, however, mitigated sensorless solution. Extending findings full-scale also discussed.