Drones and UAVs Energy Management Progress and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

The implementation of energy storages and renewable energies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, also called drones) could be essential for guaranteeing flight durations under specific weight/volume constraints. When multiple power supply sources are installed in a drone, the variability of the operation conditions means the energy management and the power distribution strategies should match the characteristics of each power supply sources. To address these issues, some special design considerations should be adopted to combine different power sources (battery, fuel cell, supercapacitor, flywheel, etc.) and advanced energy management strategies (EMS) in the most efficient and effective way. Depending on the specific load power profile, different EMS can be considered to increase the overall performances of the drone system. The optimization design of hybrid systems with smart EMS shall increase not only the autonomy of the drone but also the service life for each power sources installed onboard. These EMS will be realized through the power electronics associated with different power sources. Moreover, to optimally control the energy flow among the different sources even under faulty conditions (for example, loss of one power source), some fault-tolerant control strategies can be considered to insure smooth operation of the drone.

In this context, this Special Issue aims to be an open platform to share knowledge about drones and UAVs energy management progress and challenges. It particularly seeks original contributions regarding ideas, recent developments, or matured studies addressing both theoretical and experimental aspects.

Dr. Zhibin Zhou
Dr. Teresa Donateo
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Benbouzid
Guest Editors

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