Research on wireless power transfer system for Torpedo autonomous underwater vehicles

Abstract

The wireless power transfer shows great potential in the future for its safety and convenience. Autonomous underwater vehicle is one of the important tools to explore and develop oceans. In this study, we develop and analyze a wireless power transfer system based on magnetic resonance coupling to charge the autonomous underwater vehicle underwater. We have adopted a way that energy transmission underneath the vehicle and the coils in the wireless power transfer system were proposed to obtain a higher mutual inductance based on the shape of the vehicle in this study. In addition, we analyze the equivalent circuit model and propose a kind of impedance matching network to maintain system security. The coils we used in the proposed system are 20 turns and their radii are 70 mm. The system works well with 100 W output and 72% efficiency.