Wireless Charging Coupler for Agricultural UAVs and Drones with T-Shaped Landing Gear

Utilizing Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) to charge Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones brings us closer to automating various UAV and drone applications. This article proposes a structural modification to an existing IPT coupler designed for drones with T-shaped landing gear apparatuses, commonly used in agricultural applications. The proposed design has a higher coupling coefficient and mutual inductance. The results show that a 59.3% increase in the mutual inductance has resulted in 37.6% less current in the primary side of the inductive power transfer system, which contributes to lower transmitter coil losses.