HIGHLY RESONANT WIRELESS POWER TRANSFER IN SUBSEA APPLICATIONS

Recent technological advances have allowed unmanned underwater vehicles to act with more autonomy, allowing them to embark on longer missions to increasingly deeper and more difficult environments. While these vehicles can navigate themselves as they collect and process data, human intervention is still required to replenish their power supplies. Truly autonomous long-duration missions will likely be difficult until the energy sources in these vehicles can be replenished without human intervention. WiTricity Corporation has been developing wireless and automatic charging solutions in a variety of markets, including investigating the feasibility using Highly Resonant Wireless Power Transfer (HR-WPT) technologies to support the transfer of several kilowatts of power wirelessly to a vehicle such as an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV). Highly resonant wireless power transfer can enable power transfer through a variety of materials, including saltwater. A HR-WPT system, encased in a hermetically sealed enclosure, could transfer several kilowatts of power through water while eliminating the need for failure prone wet-mate connectors. Additionally, because HR-WPT systems can transfer power efficiently to devices as they move around, devices such as UUVs could be recharged simply by floating alongside a dock or other platform that has been outfitted with a wireless power source. The high efficiency wireless power transfer between sources and devices with varying relative positions and orientations removes the need for tight mechanical coupling and allows for power to be transferred between objects underwater safely, reliably, and efficiently.