Wireless Autonomous Vehicle Power Transfer (WAVPT)
Abstract
The Wireless Autonomous Vehicle Power Transfer (WAVPT) program will develop small footprint, efficient receivers to enable power beaming from a ground-based transmitter to a remote unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). UAVs are currently powered by large, heavy chemical batteries or an engine, with associated liquid fuel. This consumes a large percentage of the UAV's weight budget and places strict limitations on its range. Wireless power transfer represents a paradigm-changing solution to power distribution by alleviating the need to carry all energy sources on-board, drastically reducing UAV weight, and increasing aircraft endurance. Additional power can also be made available for the UAV's payload, allowing use of higher-functionality sensing and computing systems and enabling better data exploitation and threat response. Previous wireless power transfer experiments have demonstrated delivery of over 30 kilowatts of power over a distance of one kilometer but have seen limited adoption due to the prohibitively large, meter-sized receivers required. WAVPT will leverage recent advances in directed energy sources and beam-forming capabilities and develop new receiver architectures to demonstrate efficient wireless power transfer in a small form-factor. Advanced semiconductor materials and processing techniques will be used to develop low-cost, centimeter-sized receivers with high efficiency and energy densities, enabling integration within a small platform. The program will culminate with a demonstration of hundreds of watts of power being transferred from a ground-based transmitter to a UAV at least one kilometer away. The technology that is developed within this program can break the inherent tradeoff between mission duration and weight for unmanned vehicles and transform next-generation military systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Source ID
- 6d729e845be1f974cd44cf2fd71533d9
Related Documents
- Root: ELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY