Abstract
In this study, we targeted a continuous water discharge drone for extending the applications. The targeted drone was equipped with a power cable and a water supply hose instead of a battery and a tank. In addition, a supply port was set up to tie up the power cable and the water supply hose. By using this supply port, it was possible to support equally the total loads between the supply port and the drone, therefore the water discharge area was wide. The continuous water discharge drone was designed for cleaning solar panels with the target water discharge area of 100 m2, the same area as the solar panel cleaning robot. The actual developed drone was a quad type with a diameter propeller of 10 inch, propeller pitch of 4.5 inch and propeller rotation speed of 6000 rpm. It was found that the actual payload became 690 g exceeding the designed value of 610 g in the flight experiment using the continuous water discharge drone connected to the power cable and water supply hose. Moreover, it was found that the water discharge area became 103 m2, nearly equal to the target value of 100 m2.
