An Experimental Evaluation of LTA on the performance of a drone

Contrary to conventional heavier than air (HTA) drones such as helicopters and quad-copters, whereby their lift is aerodynamically created via the air by the motion of an air foil, hot air stays upward using a light lifting gas. This distinctive feature can provide them with a high payload to weight ratio having long endurance, which this research investigates. The experiment set up for comparison is simply a test designed to determine the battery performance of a drone. The test takes into account the time the drone can last while performing a simply hover at 3 meters with no accessories attached to it (i.e. no mount or camera). It also takes into account the time taken to recharge the battery and the battery consumption while the battery is idle. The aim of the experiment is to evaluate if the LTA concept increases battery performance by comparing its flight time while performing a hover at 3 meters with the results of the DJI inspired drone using MATLAB and SIMULINK. The result shows a total number of 565.7928 seconds (9.43 minutes) battery time for the first model and 581.1097 seconds (9.69 minutes) battery time for the second model. This result looks promising for the LTA concept considering that the battery supplies current for a total of 10 minutes for a 30-minute flight as opposed to a DJI Inspired 2 drone that requires current discharge through the entire 30-minute flight. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of SMPM 2019.