A Novel Hybrid Wireless Power Transfer Coupler for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Application

Abstract

The special structure of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) poses challenges to the integrated design method and power transmission capability of the couplers used for their wireless charging. This paper proposes a new inductive and capacitive combined hybrid wireless power transfer coupler for UAV. Among them, the capacitive coupler is designed as a six-plate structure. A receiving plate and a shielding plate are installed on each of the two landing gears of the UAV, and the transmitting plates are installed on the ground. The FR4 epoxy insulating material is filled between the plates to increase the coupling capacitance. The inductive coupler adopts a square coil form, which is installed on the belly of the UAV. Inductive coupler and capacitive coupler compensate each other for reactive power while transmitting power, which eliminates the need for additional compensation network components on the receiving side. Secondly, based on the single-sided LCLC compensation network, this paper presents a parameter design method that can adjust the power transmission ratio of inductive and capacitive couplers. Then, the component stress analysis was conducted. Compared with the inductive power transfer (IPT) and capacitive power transfer (CPT) systems that have the same coupler and similar compensation network, the proposed system significantly reduced the stress on the coupler. Finally, an experimental prototype is established to verify the scheme. The experimental results show that the system can transmit 500 W at an efficiency of 80.7%, which means it can be used for wireless charging of UAV.