Rotating-Coordinate-Based Mutual Inductance Estimation for Drone In-Flight Wireless Charging Systems

This article proposes a fast and real-time mutual inductance estimation method for drone in-flight wireless charging systems against the continuous varying of relative position between coupling coils. In previous studies, many efforts have been made to achieve accurate mutual inductance estimation when fixed misalignment occurs in coupling coils. However, the critical challenge for in-flight wireless charging systems is to track variations of mutual inductance caused by continuously changed misalignments between coupling coils, which is rarely explored in previous studies. Accordingly, this article proposes a rotating-coordinate-based mutual inductance estimation method to track the variation of the mutual inductance timely. By applying the
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dynamic model, the proposed estimation method is effectively enhanced in terms of rapidity and implemented simply, as well as eliminating wireless communication links. With the salient features of accuracy, rapidity, and real time, it can be an ideal solution against the continuous disturbance of mutual inductance, especially for drone in-flight wireless charging systems. In this article, both simulated and experimental results are given to verify the validity of the proposed rotating-coordinate-based estimation method, wherein the relative error of the mutual inductance estimation is within 1%, and the estimation rapidity is less than 4 ms.