Study on non-contact power transmission of underwater unmanned vehicle

A type of electromagnetic coupler which named annular ferrite electromagnetic coupler is put forward for transmitting power to underwater unmanned vehicle from underwater dock. Finite element method was applied to analyze the magnetic field distribution of the system, and the leakage inductance and the magnetizing inductance were calculated and analyzed with different gap distances. Furthermore, equivalent circuit of the electromagnetic coupler with compensation capacitor was established to analyzed voltage gain and efficiency of the system, and the ocean current disturbance influence on voltage gain and efficiency was analyzed. The performance of the system was predicted by the theory model, and analysis results show that the annular electromagnetic coupler has the advantages of stable voltage gain and efficiency. A miniature of annular ferrite electromagnetic coupler was produced to test, and the results show that the electromagnetic coupler is particularly suitable for underwater non-contact power transmission.