We use cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to browse this site you agree to our use of cookies. More info.

Aerial drones are a growth industry, offering solutions to a range of problems. However, their use is limited by several factors including flight time. To overcome this issue, a paper published in Energies has presented a wireless charging pad design that uses resonant magnetic technology.

Study: Efficient Wireless Drone Charging Pad for Any Landing Position and Orientation . Image Credit: Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.com

Drones are increasingly being utilized by numerous industries for applications such as surveillance, monitoring, and delivery. They are used for gathering information and delivering supplies during disasters, thermal sensing during search and rescue operations, crop spraying for agriculture, and mapping inaccessible terrain. They are also being increasingly employed by law enforcement and the military.

Drones typically employ between 4 and 8 rotor blades to provide lift and control during flight. They rely on lithium batteries for power. Despite their utility, some challenges exist in drone design that limit their widespread commercial uptake across society.

Simplified equivalent circuit of a WPT system with SP compensation. Image Credit: Campi, T et al, Energies

Drones are largely limited by their power capacity and flight time. Whilst larger capacity lithium batteries can be installed in them, this increases their weight and consequently reduces the payload they can carry. For this reason, drones must be recharged. Currently, charging requires human intervention, limiting the autonomy of the devices. The typical flight time of a drone is 40 minutes.

To overcome this limitation, wireless charging pads have been proposed for the drone industry that facilitates autonomous fast charging that extends the operational ability of drone technologies. Several designs have been explored by researchers in recent years. Wireless charging technologies are currently widely employed in several industries. A charge is transmitted from a transmitting coil within the ground base station to a receiving coil in the device that requires charging.

System configuration for drone wireless charging (a) and landing gear dimensions (b). Image Credit: Campi, T et al, Energies

Wireless charging devices for drones need to account for several factors. The main consideration is limiting the weight of the receiving coil onboard the drone to provide optimal operating efficiency. Another key consideration is the possible misalignment of both receiving and transmitting coils due to imprecise landing, which can affect the coupling of coils and therefore charging efficiency and performance of the system.

Different solutions have been proposed to overcome these issues. One proposed system is an inductive charging system that employs a receiving coil situated on the drone’s landing gear. Whilst this reduces the distance between transmitting and receiving coils, the presence of an external coil could interfere with mission-critical drone components such as cameras.

Another proposed solution involves using a large receiving coil to improve power transfer, but this adds extra weight to the drone. Additionally, systems that employ transmitters and receivers with multiple coils have been proposed, but this limits payload installation by taking up space. A further proposed system uses a transmitter installed on movable parts in the landing pad to overcome alignment issues, but whilst this improves electrical performance, it reduces the system’s reliability due to the moving parts.

Overcoming these issues with a wireless charging system that is reliable and offers enhanced power transfer is central to research within the field. The paper published in Energies has presented a system that works on the basis of inductive resonance. Inductive resonance is based upon the magnetic coupling between multiple coils.

The design of the system employs five planar transmitting coils within the charging station, partially overlapping each other. The landing gear of the drone itself was turned into the receiving coil, with aluminum tubes selected for this purpose. The landing gear receiver does not add any weight to the drone and additionally, it does not interfere with payload elements like cameras or LiDAR systems.

The landing pad is highly insensitive to the drone’s landing position and additionally, the design can be scaled to fit the needs of multiple drone models in terms of power requirements and landing precision. The proposed design proved to perform well, with over 75% efficiency. The design was tested on a medium-sized drone that had a 0.5 kg payload.

The main advantages of the proposed wireless charging system are threefold. Full integration of the receiving coil and landing gear means that payload and weight are not affected, misalignment conditions are highly tolerated, and high charging power and superior electrical efficiency for every landing position and orientation of drones.

Feeding configuration of the multiple transmitting coils. Image Credit: Campi, T et al, Energies

In the study published in Energies, a highly efficient and reliable wireless charging system for drones based on magnetic resonance technology has been presented. This system will provide reliable, fast charging for drones, which will enhance their operational abilities by providing a degree of autonomy not realized with current charging strategies, aiding their commercial uptake across multiple sectors.

Campi, T et al. (2021) Efficient Wireless Drone Charging Pad for Any Landing Position and Orientation [online] Energies 14:23 | mdpi.com. Available at:​​​​https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/23/8188/htm#B11-energies-14-08188

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

Reg Davey is a freelance copywriter and editor based in Nottingham in the United Kingdom. Writing for News Medical represents the coming together of various interests and fields he has been interested and involved in over the years, including Microbiology, Biomedical Sciences, and Environmental Science.

Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report:

Davey, Reginald. (2021, December 08). Wireless Charging Pad for Drones Based on Resonant Magnetic Technology. AZoM. Retrieved on May 20, 2022 from https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=57620.

Davey, Reginald. "Wireless Charging Pad for Drones Based on Resonant Magnetic Technology". AZoM. 20 May 2022. <https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=57620>.

Davey, Reginald. "Wireless Charging Pad for Drones Based on Resonant Magnetic Technology". AZoM. https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=57620. (accessed May 20, 2022).

Davey, Reginald. 2021. Wireless Charging Pad for Drones Based on Resonant Magnetic Technology. AZoM, viewed 20 May 2022, https://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=57620.

Do you have a review, update or anything you would like to add to this news story?

AZoM speaks with Dr. Nicola Ferralis from MIT about his research that has developed a low-cost process of creating carbon fibers from hydrocarbon pitch. This research could lead to the large-scale use of carbon fiber composites in industries that have thus far been limited.

In this interview, AZoM speaks with Marco Enger, Senior Tribologist from GGB, to discuss how nano fillers affect transfer films within tribological systems.

Ahead of their talk on green chemistry and profitability in laboratory research at ChemUK 2022, AZoM spoke with Jacqueline Balian from Gambica and Martyn Fordman from Asynt about encouraging sustainability in the chemical industry.

COXEM's CP-8000+ is a powerful cross section polishing tool that uses an argon ion beam to allow precise, advanced sample preparation. Its state-of-the-art technology means the sample is not deformed and does not suffer any kind of physical damage.

This product profile outlines the background information of ARSST tool that is being used for screening tests and operating in "open cell" mode.

This product profile outlines the Evolution™ Pro UV-Vis Spectrophotometers from Thermo Fisher Scientific.

This article provides an end-of-life assessment of lithium-ion batteries, focusing on the recycling of an ever-growing amount of spent Li-Ion batteries in order to work toward a sustainable and circular approach to battery use and reuse.

Corrosion is the degradation of an alloy caused by its exposure to the environment. Corrosion deterioration of metallic alloys exposed to the atmosphere or other adverse conditions is prevented using a variety of techniques.

Due to the ever-increasing demand for energy, the demand for nuclear fuel has also increased, which has further created a significant increase in the requirement for post-irradiation examination (PIE) techniques.

AZoM.com - An AZoNetwork Site

Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2022