Endurance Enhancement of Aerial Vehicle Energy Transmitters Using Conical Corrugated Horn Antenna

A corrugated horn antenna is proposed for the unmanned aerial vehicle energy transmitter (UAV-ET) application. Firstly, the proposed antenna can be manufactured using polylactic acid (PLA) 3-dimensional (3-D) printing with copper conductive paint coating, which is lightweight and cost-effective compared to metal 3-D printing. Secondly, the results confirm that the sidelobe level of the antenna is below -30 dB, and radiation efficiency is above 99% throughout the operating frequency band. Also, the proposed antenna increases the UAV-ET wireless power transfer (WPT) time by 47.5% and 4.5% compared to UAV-ETs equipped with a dipole array and a slotted waveguide array respectively. Furthermore, the mass production of the antenna is easy because of its design simplicity which is highly desirable for the large swarm of UAV-ETs to increase the wireless power transfer coverage for charging ground sensors.