Energy Harvesting and Mission Effectiveness for Small Unmanned Aircraft
نویسندگان
چکیده
This paper explores the feasibility of improving unmanned air vehicle (UAV) mission effectiveness by extracting energy from the atmosphere. Specifically, we consider an aerial surveillance mission in the vicinity of a geographic ridge. Cross winds flowing over the ridge produce regions of lift on the windward side that can be exploited to increase mission duration. Mission effectiveness is quantified using the seeability metric. Simulation results are presented for several observation target placements. Results indicate that seeability and imaging persistence can be improved by exploiting ridge lift. Simulations demonstrated that targets at ranges less than four times the ridge height were able to be observed over an indefinite period by a UAV with a glide ratio of 11:1.
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