A Lightweight Wireless Charging method for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Abstract

Recently, more and more unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used in industry, public services and commercial fields. However, the UAV is generally limited by the battery capacity, and the operation radius is greatly limited. In this paper, to increase the flight time of the UAV, the recharging station by using wireless power transfer (WPT) technology is proposed. A new receiver magnetic coupler is given, the receiver coil is wound around the hollow ferrite core, and the proposed structure provides many benefits: 1) first, there is a large magnetic flux captured surface, which can improve the mutual coupling between the primary side and secondary side. 2) Second, own to the hollow ferrite core, the receiver side is light, which has little effect on the weight bearing of UAV. 3) Third, it is easy to be installed on the UAV, since the receiving coil is compact. 4) Moreover, the proposed WPT system provides enough anti misalignment capability for UAV.