Wireless Power Transfer Technology for Drones
Project Description
Drones are used in a
variety of applications such as surveillance, agriculture, inspection of power
lines, aerial mapping, and courier services. They are powered by batteries
that generally have a low battery capacity. These batteries require frequent charging
which means the drone needs to make a return flight to a base station to
physically connect the battery to power. As a result, the range of operation of
these vehicles as well as their flight time is limited. Wireless charging
provides a smart, convenient, and time efficient solution that can increase a
drone’s functionality. Inductive Power Transfer
(IPT) is the most commonly used technology for wireless power transfer in
drones. Fig. 1 shows a rectangular double helix receiver coil proposed by Uvir Gordhan, a postgraduate student at UCT. The proposed coils can be easily fitted into the two of the T-Shaped Landing gear and demonstrate superior performance compared to the existing solenoid coils.
Fig. 1
Papers