Squirrel Cage Magnetic Coupler Suitable for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Wireless Charging Applications

The charging efficiency of an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) based on an inductive wireless charging system is greatly affected by the magnetic coupling mechanism. When the UUV and the underwater charging station are docked with a random rotation and axial misalignment, the coupling coefficient will decrease, which will result in the decrease of charging power and efficiency. In this paper, a squirrel cage magnetic coupler is proposed, which has a strong ability to against the axial misalignment and rotation misalignment, and the magnetic coupler is simple and easy to be manufactured. The squirrel cage magnetic coupler is a circumferential symmetrical structure composed of columnar magnetic core windings. With the proposed magnetic coupler, the magnetoresistance will change slightly when the UUV and the underwater charging station are docked with a rotation and axial misalignment, which will result in a stable coupling coefficient and high against misalignment performance. The performance of the proposed magnetic coupler is verified by the finite element simulation and experimental results.