DOI: 10.1017/aer.2026.10223 ISSN: 0001-9240
Energy-aware trajectory planning considering multi-physics dynamics for fuel cell-powered rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles
Hasan Cinar, Dmitry Ignatyev, Argyrios Zolotas Abstract
Electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have limited flight time and range due to energy and power constraints in their power system components. This paper proposes a novel energy-aware trajectory generation method for rotary-wing UAVs powered by hydrogen that optimises fuel cell energy consumption by considering the dynamic behaviour of the propulsion system. The proposed method incorporates multi-physical effects of the fuel cell, electronic speed controller, motor, UAV dynamics and propeller. After validating the fuel cell propulsion model based on literature, the energy-aware trajectory optimisation problem is formulated and solved using the
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frameworks. The study examines energy-optimal trajectory planning for two fuel cell-powered topologies: semi-active (Setup A) and direct (Setup B). The key characteristics of the fuel cell, voltage drop (
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), are considered to represent the dynamic behaviour of two different fuel cells during a mission starting at 40 m in the x direction and 20 m in the z direction. The simulation results show that Setup B has lower transient current fluctuations and a more stable power profile than Setup A, as evidenced by the decreased derivative of fuel cell current and hydrogen consumption rate. Energy-aware trajectory generation has been shown to reduce cumulative energy consumption by optimising vertical and forward velocity profiles, increasing the endurance of rotary-wing UAVs. To summarise, this study presents a novel methodology for energy-aware trajectory optimisation in fuel cell-powered UAVs by incorporating propulsion system dynamics into flight planning, which has been largely overlooked in the existing literature on hydrogen-powered rotary-wing UAVs.