Wireless Power Transfer Efficiency Analysis under Various Misalignment Conditions in Drone Charging
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54536/jsere.v2i1.7046Keywords:
Agricultural, Monitoring Drones, Resonant Wireless Power Transfer, Wireless ChargingAbstract
This paper entails the design and simulation of a direct solar-powered wireless charging System to mitigate the operational endurance limitation of autonomous agricultural drones in Zimbabwe, where grid instability is prevalent, and to study the wireless transfer under various misalignment conditions during charging. The system architecture bypasses the grid and manual intervention by employing a high-efficiency photovoltaic array, directly coupled to a magnetically coupled resonant wireless power transfer system. The ground-based segment comprises the photovoltaic array, a maximum power point tracking charge controller for optimal energy harvesting, and a resonant transmitting coil. The drone-mounted receiver consists of a complementary pick-up coil and power conditioning circuitry. The validation will be conducted via a multi-physics simulation workflow with ANSYS Maxwell for electromagnetic finite-element analysis and coil optimization, and MATLAB with python programming for dynamic system-level modeling. This model will incorporate solar irradiance and thermal profiles specific to Zimbabwe to evaluate key performance metrics, including constant current or constant voltage charging time. Lateral and angular misalignment tolerance of the wireless power transfer coupling and end-to-end system power transfer efficiency.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Christopher K. Mutyambizi, Stanley Kudzai Mwalamba, Godfrey Murairidzi Gotora
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