A Single Excitation Source Multistage Wireless Power Transfer System for Enabling Flexible Joint Rotation of ROV Manipulator

This article presents a novel single excitation source multistage wireless power transfer (WPT) system, capable of efficiently delivering power to multiple loads via multistage magnetic resonance coupling. This system facilitates concurrent wireless energy transmission at different locations, eliminates cable limitations on manipulator flexibility, prevents cable damage due to frequent twisting, and exhibits great potential in applications like manipulator arms for remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Firstly, principle of the multistage WPT system based on LCC compensation and its power supply mode in multiple joints of a manipulator arm were introduced. Secondly, the formulations for calculating the input, output, and losses of a multistage WPT system were derived. Thirdly, taking the two-stage WPT system as an example, parameter optimization design was conducted, and the influence of key parameters on the system's output characteristics was studied. Finally, an experimental prototype with two-stage system was constructed. The prototype achieved transfer efficiency of 83.3%, with outputs of 100.26 and 94.85 W for stages one and two, respectively. This article presents a single excitation source multistage wireless power transfer (WPT) system, capable of efficiently delivering power to multiple loads via multistage magnetic resonance coupling. This system facilitates concurrent wireless energy transmission at different locations, eliminates cable limitations on manipulator flexibility, and exhibits great potential in applications like manipulators.