Résumé
This article describes the energy management system aboard a marine drone (Autonomous Surface Vehicle or ASV). Energy is provided by four photovoltaic panels (PV) attached to a rigid wing that can be oriented based on meteorological conditions and the vehicle's battery charge status. The characterization of the panels allowed for the assessment of the system's energy potential to optimize the sizing of the DC/DC converter placed between the photovoltaic panels and the onboard network, whose voltage is controlled by a lithiumion battery specific to the ASV. The wide voltage variations at the panels' output and the need for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) require a converter capable of both step-down and step-up operations. The use of a non-inverting Buck-Boost converter with four switches is thus a simple and effective solution for the envisioned application. This article presents the approach to sizing, modeling, and implementing this converter.