Online Performance Optimization of a DC Motor Driving a Variable Pitch Propeller

摘要

A practical online optimization scheme is developed for performanceoptimization of an electrical aircraft propulsion system. The goal is tominimize the power extraction of the propulsion system for any given thrustvalue. The online optimizer computes the optimum pitch angle of a variablepitch propeller by minimizing the power of the system for a command thrustvalue. This algorithm is tested on a DC motor driving a variable pitchpropeller; the experimental hardware setup of the DC motor along with itsvariable pitch propeller is also described. Experimental results show theefficiency and practicality of the proposed online optimization scheme.Outstanding issues are sketched.