Development of an Autonomous Wireless Charging System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are capable of revolutionizing the delivery industry but suffer from insufficient flight range due to battery limitations and charging requirements. Wireless power transfer offers a solution by creating autonomous recharging stations that can extend the range of UAVs. This paper presents a 700 W fully autonomous wireless charging system with a motorized coil alignment mechanism. Surveying the literature, the level of integration of the system presented is rare; hence, the paper provides a comprehensive design methodology. The system achieves greater than 86% DC-to-DC efficiency for the full constant-current constant-voltage charging profile of two paralleled 7000 mAh UAV LiPo batteries. The alignment mechanism ensures lateral displacement of less than 1 cm, within a search area of 40 cm by 40 cm on the landing platform, allowing maximum power transfer.