Power System Development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle using Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell

3 Agency for defense development, chochiwongil 462, Yuseong-Ku, Daejeon 305-152, Korea Abstract >> In this paper, the development and performance analysis of a fuel cell-powered unmanned aerial vehicle is described. A fuel cell system featuring 1 kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell combined with a highly pressurized fuel supply system is proposed. For the higher fuel consumption efficiency and simplification of overall system, dead-end type operation is chosen and each individual system such as purge system, fuel supply system, cooling system is developed. Considering that fluctuation of exterior load makes it hard to stabilize fuel cell performance, the power management system is designed using a fuel cell and lithium-ion battery hybrid system. After integration of individual system, the performance of unmanned aerial vehicle is analyzed using data from flight and laboratory test. In the result, overall system was properly operated but for more duration of flight, research on weight lighting and improvement of fuel efficiency is needed to be progressed.