Rotorcraft flight endurance estimation based on a new battery discharge model

To avoid the numerical complexities of the battery discharge law of electric-powered rotorcrafts,this study uses the Kriging method to model the discharge characteristics of Li-Po batteries under standard conditions.A linear current compensation term and an ambient temperature compensation term based on radial basis functions are then applied to the trained Kriging model,leading to the complete discharged capacity-terminal voltage model.Using an orthogonal experimental design and a sequential method,the coefficients of the current and ambient temperature compensation terms are determined through robust optimization.An endurance calculation model for electric-powered rotorcrafts is then established,based on the battery discharge model,through numerical integration.Laboratory tests show that the maximum relative error of the proposed discharged capacity-terminal voltage model at detection points is 0.0086,and that of the rotorcraft endurance calculation model is 0.0195,thus verifying their accuracy.A flight test further demonstrates the applicability of the proposed endurance model to general electric-powered rotorcrafts.