Underwater Docking System with Bidirectional Wireless Power Transmission Capability

The docking station serves as a seafloor charging node to enhance the endurance of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). However, for distant-or deep-sea observations, it is nearly unaffordable to provide power for docking stations using extremely long cables. Thus, this paper proposes a possible power-supply solution by designing a docking system with bidirectional wireless power transmission (BWPT) capability. Based on this technology, the docking station can not only provide power to AUVs, but also be recharged by the submersibles with adequate energy, which may come from self-equipped battery, solar energy, wave and thermal-gradient energy from the ocean. The BWPT system for docking system is developed with a symmetrical topology and its feasibility is validated by simulation in Matlab Simulink.