Evaluation of a Hybrid Copter Drone Using Hydrogen fuel cell and Batteries

Copter drone use has been a steady increase over the last couple of decades.The main obstacle that has slowed down the widespread use of these systems has been their limited flight time.This research paper will focus on implementing a hybrid system that includes a hydrogen fuel cell (HFC) along with a battery in a hex-copter configuration to determine its effectiveness and if possible, increase its flight time.The reason for the use of hydrogen relies on the fact that it has a higher energy density (120 kJ/g) than commercial lithium-ion polymer batteries (LiPo), the type of batteries most civilian drones currently use, which only have an energy density of 1 kJ/g.This project was divided into several smaller tasks for its completion: Assembling the drone, preparing a testing flight with only LiPo batteries, testing the HFC and batteries with a parallel circuit composed of lightbulbs, and finally testing both the HFC and LiPo batteries on the drone to spin the motors without propellers.The data used for the analysis of the performance of the drone was the power drawn over the duration of each test.The results show a delay of less than 1 second between the transition from the fuel cell power to battery power.Additionally, it was found that both fuel cell and battery supplied battery at the same time, but the latter was almost negligible.However, the battery effectively supplied the drone with almost the same amount of power as the fuel cell when hydrogen was exhausted.Finally, it was found that the battery system plays an important role when the fuel cell is being turned on or off.