Accurate State of Charge Estimation for Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) Aircraft Batteries Using Coulomb Counting

¹ Engineering Sciences and Energy Management Laboratory (LASIME), Higher School of Technology (ESTA), Electrical Engineering department, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, Morocco.
² Sustainable Innovation and Applied Research Laboratory (LIDRA), International University of Agadir Universiapolis, Agadir, Morocco.

^* e-mail: hind.labiri.79@edu.uiz.ac.ma
^** e-mail: s.farhat@uiz.ac.ma
^*** e-mail: f.nadir@uiz.ac.ma
^**** e-mail: h.elihssini@uiz.ac.ma
^† e-mail: zakaria.chekoubi@e-polytechnique.ma

Abstract

Electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft are emerging as a promising solution for urban air mobility, offering rapid and efficient transportation in congested areas. A critical challenge in these systems is the accurate estimation of the battery State of Charge (SoC), which directly impacts flight safety and operational reliability. This study evaluates the performance of the Coulomb Counting method for SoC estimation using a MATLAB-based simulation. The method demonstrated high accuracy across all flight phases, with estimation errors remaining below 0.01 specifically 0.0053 during take-off, 0.0050 during hover, 0.0080 during cruise, and 0.0077 during landing. These results confirm the suitability of Coulomb Counting for real-time SoC tracking in eVTOL applications, while emphasizing the importance of calibration and drift correction for long-term accuracy.