Demonstration of Automatic Impedance-Matching and Constant Power Feeding to and Electric Helicopter via Magnetic Resonance Coupling

Abstract

Wireless power transfer (WPT) from a transmitter resonator on the ground to an electrically powered miniature heli-copter was attempted to demonstrate WPT using magnetic resonance coupling to an object moving in 3D space. The transmission efficiency was optimized by automatic impedance matching for different flight attitudes: a maximum flight altitude of 590 mm was achieved. Furthermore, an estimation method of transmission efficiency using only the properties on the transmitter side was proposed, with transmission power regulated as constant against the change in the coupling coefficient.