An Onboard Magnetic Integration-Based WPT System for UAV Misalignment-Tolerant Charging With Constant Current Output

This article presents an onboard magnetic integration-based wireless power transfer (WPT) system for misalignment-tolerant and stable charging of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with a lightweight and compact receiver (Rx). The onboard Rx and integrated compensation coils are coupled with an asymmetrical transmitter (Tx) coil to enhance the power transmission capacity and achieve misalignment tolerance. The secondary integrated-based compensation topology and its tuning method, which neutralize the coupling between the Rx and compensation coils, are elaborated to maintain the high-order topology performance with zero phase angle (ZPA) and constant current (CC) output. Furthermore, the topology operates stably in the whole misalignment-tolerant area of the asymmetrical coils. Finally, a WPT prototype is built to verify the performance of the studied methodology in both load variation and position deviation configurations. The output current changes by only ±2.5% when the load resistance varies from 5 to 50
$\Omega $
. The proposed onboard magnetic integration-based WPT system allows ±150-mm landing deviations of UAVs.