A High-Compatibility Wireless Power Transfer System for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Based on Reconfigurable Magnetic Couplers

Abstract

When autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) replenish energy through wireless power transfer (WPT) technology on the underwater charging platform, there are practical issues such as excessive transmission gaps and unstable positioning. Additionally, the fixed size of the charging platform leads to insufficient compatibility. This paper proposes a high compatibility WPT system based on a reconfigurable magnetic coupler (RMC) for AUVs replenishing underwater energy. The transmitter of the RMC is combined with the charging platform cage and can follow the charging platform cage in radial dimensions. RMC can provide better coupling performance, and its necessity and effectiveness have been verified through finite element simulation. When the proposed high-compatibility charging platform supplies energy to AUVs of different sizes, the RMC will reconfigure its structure, leading to changes in the transmitter's self-inductance. To address this issue, a switch-controlled capacitor (SCC) method was incorporated into the system to achieve dynamic tuning. Finally, an experimental prototype was built to test the functionality and performance of the proposed RMC structure and SCC method. Compared to existing methods, this approach significantly enhances the practical application capabilities of WPT technology in underwater charging platforms and positively contributes to the cluster deployment of AUVs.