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SUAV is a 4 year investigation with the aim of designing, manufacturing and integrating a 3kg Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) into an existing 11kg fixed wing UAV which is already in commercial service. The project comprises of a collaboration of ten partners, each having a commercial or scientific interest in the design. Individual partners provide specific specialist knowledge at system component level. This paper will present an overview of the problem space and show the methods used to generate the system level requirements. A top level overview of the resultant system design is also given.

This paper presents a summary of several projects investigating the power generation and demand profiles of UAV power systems for the purposes of increasing overall system effectiveness. With an increasing presence of advanced energy generation and storage devices in UAV power architectures such as fuel cells, photovoltaics, super capacitors, etc., and an increasing potential to dynamically control a UAV system's load profiles, mission effectiveness can be substantially improved via intelligent power management techniques as well as through traditional efficiency improvements. Load scheduling, power smoothing and dynamic mission planning can all introduce energy saving and optimization opportunities, particularly when the characteristics of system loads can be matched with the energy storage and generation of the system.