Wireless power transmission for drones

• Autor(a) principal: Carvalho, António Jorge Dinis da Silva de
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/14553
• topic: Engenharia electrónica; Antenas (Electrónica); Redes de sensores sem fios; Drones (Aeronaves)

Drones are unmanned aerial vehicles that have proliferated the market due to their low cost and the many applications that can already be associated to them. Besides the common use of these devices for playful activities, as aerial event recording, they demonstrate an enormous potential in other applications, such as military, as search and rescue or reconnaissance missions, or commercial, for example: surveillance and inspection of crops. However, most commercial devices currently available suffer from a major drawback in terms of their dependence of batteries which, in consequence of the large energy demand supplied to the drone's engines, quickly discharge. In addition, the weight of these batteries typically implies that more power is needed to keep the drone flying. This drawback can be overcome, or attenuated, using dedicated wireless power transmission systems that enable the devices to maintain flight without the need of batteries or simply charging them while in use. Throughout this dissertation a microwave wireless power transmission system working at 5.8 GHz will be described in detail, with emphasis on the design of the microstrip antenna array developed to allow directive transmission and the rectenna proposed for reception and power conversion. The proposed system allows the used quadcopter to boot and link with its remote control and demonstrates the potential to be adapted for other purposes.