Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Wireless Power Transfer System for Long-Distance Transmission Line Patrol

Aiming at the problem that the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has limited application in long-distance power line inspection due to its short endurance time, this paper presents a novel intelligent UAV power patrol system based on wireless power transfer (WPT) technology. The relay WPT recharging base station is arranged at the fixed point in the inspection path, so as to provide energy guarantee for the UAV to independently perform long-distance power line inspection tasks. According to the UAV’s special structure and limited payload, a lightweight magnetic coupler is proposed. The system circuit topology is designed, and the transmission characteristics of the system are studied. Finally, the experimental prototype is built. The test results show that the WPT system can transmit 100.8 W with a DC-DC efficiency of S3.3%, the receiver weighs only 45 g, which can meet the future development demand of UAV autonomous power patrol.