Quintana, Javier A.Bordons Alba, CarlosEsteban Roncero, SergioDelgado, Julián2025-10-022025-10-022025Quintana, J.A., Bordons Alba, C., Esteban Roncero, S. y Delgado, J. (2025). Hybrid Powerplant Design and Energy Management for UAVs: Enhancing Autonomy and Reducing Operational Costs. Energies, 18 (12), 3101.https://doi.org/10.3390/en18123101.1996-1073https://hdl.handle.net/11441/177391This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy-Efficient Advances in More Electric Aircraft.This study presents the design of a hybrid powerplant for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), improving its autonomy compared to power systems based solely on batteries. The powerplant is designed for the Mugin EV-350 aircraft. Using experimental data from electric motors in a wind tunnel and fuel cells, a comparative analysis of different energy management strategies, such as fuzzy logic and passive, is conducted to reduce the operational and maintenance costs. A Python-based software program is developed and utilized for the real-time implementation and simulation of energy management strategies, with data collected in databases. This study integrates experimental data (wind tunnel and fuel cells) with real-time EMS strategies, and simulation-based predictions indicate practical improvements in endurance and cost reduction, as well as an increase in flight autonomy of 50%.application/pdf25 p.engAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Energy managementSystem integrationElectric propulsion systemsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttps://doi.org/10.3390/en18123101