UK engineers demonstrate wireless charging for drones

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Despite the rapid rise of drone technology, its application is frequently limited by re-charging requirements. Thanks to wireless recharging technology developed by engineers at Imperial College London this could all be about to change.

The team, from the university’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, has demonstrated a highly efficient method for wirelessly transferring power to a drone while it is flying based on inductive coupling, a concept initially demonstrated by inventor Nikola Tesla over 100 years ago.

To demonstrate their approach the researchers bought an off-the-shelf quadcopter drone, around 12cm in diameter, and altered its electronics and removed its battery. They made a copper foil ring, which is a receiving antennae that encircles the drone's casing. On the ground, a transmitter device made out of a circuit board is connected to electronics and a power source, creating a magnetic field.

The drone's electronics are tuned or calibrated at the frequency of the magnetic field. When it flies into the magnetic field an alternating current (AC) voltage is induced in the receiving antenna and the drone's electronics convert it efficiently into a direct current (DC) voltage to power it.

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