Novel sustainable magnetic material to improve the wireless charging of a lightweight drone

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles are clear candidates to benefit from wireless power transfer, as it can facilitate their charging process and even allow them to charge autonomously. One common approach when designing a wireless power transfer (WPT) system is to incorporate ferromagnetic material to guide the magnetic field and improve system efficiency. However, a complex optimization calculation must be carried out to determine the positions and size of the ferromagnetic material and thereby restrict the additional weight imposed. This is severely limiting in the case of lightweight drones. To alleviate this burden, we show the feasibility of incorporating a novel sustainable magnetic material, called MagPlast 36-33, which has two main features. First, it is lighter than ferrite tiles and can therefore be used without having to consider complex geometries to reduce the weight. In addition, its manufacturing process is based on the principle of sustainability, since it is produced from recycled ferrite scrap generated in the industry. Its physical characteristics and properties mean that it can be used to improve the efficiency of the wireless charger, adding a weight lower than that of conventional ferrites. The experimental results we obtained in the laboratory demonstrate the feasibility of using this type of recycled material in lightweight drones operating at the frequency imposed by SAE J-2954. Furthermore, we have conducted a comparative analysis with a different ferromagnetic material commonly used in WPT systems, in order to verify the benefits of our proposal.