Design of a Capacitive Coupler for Underwater Wireless Power Transfer Focused on the Landing Direction of a Drone

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a capacitive coupler for underwater wireless power transfer focused on the landing direction of a drone. The main design feature is the relative position of power feeding/receiving points on the coupler electrodes, which depends on the landing direction of the drone. First, the maximum power transfer efficiencies of coupled lines with different feeding positions are derived in a uniform dielectric environment, such as that realized underwater. As a result, these are formulated by the coupling coefficient of the capacitive coupler, the unloaded qualify factor of dielectrics, and hyperbolic functions with complex propagation constants. The hyperbolic functions vary depending on the relative positions and whether these are identical or opposite couplers, and the efficiencies of each coupler depend on the type of water, such as seawater and tap water. The design method was demonstrated and achieved the highest efficiencies of 95.2%, 91.5%, and 85.3% in tap water at transfer distances of 20, 50, and 100 mm, respectively.