Energy-Efficient Drone Design with Solar-Powered Hybrid Propulsion System for Extended Flight Duration

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, face fundamental limitations in flight duration due to battery constraints, typically restricting operations to 20-60 minutes. This paper proposes an energy-efficient drone design leveraging a solar-powered hybrid propulsion system to achieve extended endurance, targeting 24 hours continuous flight and beyond under realistic conditions. Drawing inspiration from adaptive edge intelligence frameworks, the design integrates high-efficiency photovoltaic (PV) cells, lithium-based batteries, reinforcement learning (RL) for power management, and swarm coordination for fleet optimization. Key innovations include wing-integrated solar harvesting, RL-driven mode switching between solar-direct cruise and battery-boost climb, and bio-inspired energy sharing among drone swarms. Simulations and extrapolated prototypes demonstrate 4-5x endurance gains, with applications in persistent surveillance, environmental monitoring, and disaster response. Evaluations confirm 30-40% energy savings versus conventional designs, while maintaining payload capacity >2 kg.