High efficiency and lightweight wireless charging system for drone batteries

A high power and high efficiency Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) system based on magnetic resonant coupling is proposed to automatically recharge the battery of a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) (a remotely controlled drone). The drone is equipped with a WPT receiving (Rx) circular coil with an electronic system to control the battery charging process, while the WPT transmitting (Tx) circular coil is placed on a ground station and connected to the electric power feeding system. To improve the electrical performance and the tolerance to always possible misalignments between Rx and Tx coils, the primary coil is placed on a 2-axes motorized positioning system suitable to achieve a quite perfect alignment. This aspect is very important in the application of the WPT technology to drones due to the poor precision of the landing systems.