International Review of Electrical Engineering (I.R.E.E.), Vol. xx, n. x Manuscript received January 2010, revised January 2010 Copyright © 2010 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved A Solar Powered Autonomous Mobile Vehicle for Monitoring and Surveillance Missions of Long Duration Antonio Guerrero-González 1 , Francisco García-Córdova 1 , Francisco de Asis Ruz-Vila 2 Abstract –In this paper, an autonomous vehicle capable of operating during large periods of time for observation and monitoring is proposed. The vehicle integrates photovoltaic panels and a methanol fuel cell, together with a neurobiological inspired control architecture for intelligent navigation. In this work, the autonomy of the vehicle is evaluated in several scenarios, when the vehicle is moving in mission and when the vehicle is not moving. The energetical management module generates recharge missions with a variable priority level depending on the batteries level to the mission planner. The biologically inspired neural network architecture proposed for nonholonomic mobile robots makes the integration of a kinematic adaptive neuro- controller for trajectory tracking and an obstacle avoidance adaptive neuro- controller possible. Keywords: Solar Powered Autonomous Vehicles, Neuro-controller, Fuel Cell, Power Management I. Introduction The integration of renewable energies on autonomous vehicles has become a common practice in recent years. A large number of recent projects, seek that the autonomous vehicles not only have autonomy from the point of view of control and navigation, but also having the ability to self-generate energy, which allows to perform tasks and / or mission of long-duration. The use of photovoltaic solar energy is the most widely used for these purposes, applying to different types of autonomous vehicles regardless of the medium in which they work (land, sea and air). I.1. Solar Powered Autonomous Mobile Robots The need for different data collection in situ, at different scales of time and space, has promoted an effort to develop different types of autonomous vehicles that enable the collection of such data. These platforms have varying capabilities of each communication, durability, mobility, capacity and autonomy. Within these different platforms, are in addition to others, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) and Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV). According to D. Blidber et al. [1], there are three main limitations for autonomous underwater vehicles: energy, navigation for a long time and long distances, and user communications with the platform. He argued that the use of solar energy begins to overcome these limitations, adding the submarine's ability to regenerate energy when needed, giving the ability to last for weeks and months on mission, instead of hours. D. Blidber et al. [2] discuss the power management in different situations and find an optimum combination of the size needed to store energy, and the travel distance measurement and / or works to be undertaken by the vehicle this depending on the solar energy available in the area. Special effort is made in the balance between displacement (speed and distance), and tasks (duration and frequency of measurements, number of sensors on board). In their study raises a number of scenarios, where the energy distribution is done in different ways, according to the needs of the mission in question, but it is possible to select different settings for each case scenario. In [3] the vehicle SAUV II is described, which is an autonomous underwater model that uses solar energy for long duration missions that require monitoring, surveillance, with bi-directional communication in real time and underwater instrumentation. As an alternative to traditional research ships, with their high operating costs and buoys, which are expensive to build, deploy and maintain, J. Higginbotham et al. [4] proposes the Intergration Ocean Atmosphere Sensor System (OASIS), a project for an ASV low-cost, reusable, reconfigurable and long-term that is capable of in situ measurements, independently and for long periods of time. Another vehicle surface, the AAS Endurance, is detailed by H. Klinck et al. [5], as a project to develop in three years driven by the Austrian Society for innovation in computer science, State University of Austria and the Oregon State University. It is an autonomous sailing boat, which uses sensors, actuators and intelligent control system to manage without being driven. This autonomous marine vehicle has special equipment for the study of marine mammals. It is noteworthy that it has solar panels that generate up to 285W, and a methanol fuel cell, that supplies auxiliary 65W. In this paper, an autonomous vehicle capable of