Power System Redundancy Design Trends for All-Electric eVTOL Quadrotors

Electrical vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles promise to enable a variety of new local and intraregional air transport missions. However, there are significant challenges that must be solved to enable their use. One challenge is the relatively low reliability of power components (e.g. motors, power electronic devices, and batteries). No clear development path to create reliable eVTOL power systems has been articulated in the literature, though it is generally assumed redundancy is part of the solution. This work proposes an analysis process to examine the redundancy design space and select mass optimal designs for eVTOL power systems. The process is applied to a six passenger quadrotor vehicle, and results are used to highlight redundancy design trends for this class of vehicle. This process and associated data can help vehicle designers more effectively develop eVTOLs that meet reliability requirements.