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Autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) is a key mobile node in the ocean observation network. However, the limited endurance capacity and limited cruising range have become the bottlenecks in the wide application of the AUVs. In order to extend cruising range, this article develops a uniform power inductive power transfer (IPT) system for AUVs. A novel magnetic coupler with a low output fluctuation, low weight of receiver and a low space occupation of the AUV is proposed in this article. The proposed magnetic structure employing a quadruple-coil transmitter and a crossed dipole receiver utilizes uniform horizontal magnetic flux to establish stable coupling against rotational and axial misalignment. An IPT circuit topology is designed and analyzed in detail, meanwhile, the phase difference of the excitation currents is optimized to achieve the power and efficiency stability versus misalignments. The proposal is analyzed, established, and tested in this article. The magnetic receiver weighs only 414 g. The results show that the prototype can deliver 964.7 W with a dc–dc efficiency of 90.9%. In the process of rolling dislocation from –20° to 20° and axial dislocation from –30 mm to 30 mm, the maximum fluctuation of output power is 12.1% and 20.2%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a misalignment-tolerant wireless charging system based on multidimensional cross-coupling for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is proposed. The four transmitting coils of the proposed system magnetic coupler are divided evenly into two pairs as bipolar transmitting units. Subsequently, the uniform multi-dimensional horizontal magnetic flux can be obtained by two current vectors with a 90° phase difference exciting in the bipolar transmitting units. For the receiver, a couple of orthogonal coils are designed to form cross-coupling with the transmitter to pick up the maximum magnetic flux. Then, the proposed magnetic coupler combined with the proposed transmitter and receiver is designed through finite element analysis. Finally, a 900 W prototype is built and tested. Experimental results show that the system has stable output characteristics in the ranges of a − 20° to 20° rolling misalignment and a − 30 to 30 mm axial misalignment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]