Development of DC–DC Converters for Fuel-Cell Hybrid Power Systems in a Lift–Cruise Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Min-Gwan Gwon, Ki-Chang Lee and Jang-Mok Kim ()
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Min-Gwan Gwon: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea
Ki-Chang Lee: Electric Machine and Drive Research Center, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), Changwon 51543, Republic of Korea
Jang-Mok Kim: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Pusan National University, Busan 46241, Republic of Korea

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 21, 1-19

Abstract: Lift–cruise-type unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) powered by hydrogen fuel cells often integrate secondary energy storage devices to improve responsiveness to load fluctuations during different flight phases, which necessitates an efficient energy management strategy that optimizes power allocation among multiple power sources. This paper presents an innovative fuel cell DC–DC converter (FDC) design for the hybrid power system of a lift–cruise-type UAV comprising a multi-stack fuel cell system and a battery. The novelty of this work lies in the development of an FDC suitable for a multi-stack fuel cell system through a dual-input single-output converter structure and a control algorithm. To integrate inputs supplied from two hydrogen fuel cell stacks into a single output, a controller with a single voltage controller–dual current controller structure was applied, and its performance was verified through simulations and experiments. Load balancing was maintained even under input asymmetry, and fault-tolerant performance was evaluated by analyzing the FDC output waveform under a simulated single-stack input failure. Furthermore, under the assumed flight scenarios, the results demonstrate that stable and efficient power supply is achieved through power-supply mode switching and application of a power distribution algorithm.

Keywords: fuel cell DC–DC converter (FDC); unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); hybrid power system; energy management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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