Flexible High-Efficiency Corrugated Monocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells for Application in Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Payload Transportation

Abstract

In recent years, small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) have proven to be exceptionally useful. However, most of the commercially available drones are electric powered and therefore have a short endurance. Solar-powered UAVs have recently received increased attention due to their ability to fly continuously for several days using solar energy. For this purpose, solar cells must show high efficiency, lightweight, and ultraflexibility to be fully compliant with the drone wings/body and avoid degrading their aerodynamic characteristics. Nevertheless, previous demonstrations used rigid/semi-flexible cells. Herein, corrugated ultraflexible silicon solar cells (19% efficiency) with a smaller specific weight (645 g m−2, encapsulated) are considered and used. A theoretical comparison between the performances of the corrugated versus commercial semiflexible cells is conducted in terms of flight endurance in “AtlantikSolar” UAV. The results show that due to the ultralightweight of corrugated cells and their ability to expand at higher temperatures without bowing, an enhancement in the flight time up to 19% is achieved compared with the commercial cells which enable heavier payload (7 lbs) transportation. Finally, the corrugated cells (12.5 by 4 cm) are experimentally tested on a small-sized drone under different conditions indoors and a 10% extended flight is reported.