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

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