A novel electromagnetic actuator in an inductive power transmission system for autonomous underwater vehicle

Autonomous underwater vehicle is a class of intelligent robots, which has been widely used in ocean observatory. Inductive power transmission is a good way to supply power and extend the working endurance of autonomous underwater vehicle. The power transfer characteristic depends on the electromagnetic actuator. A novel electromagnetic actuator has been proposed for different traditional autonomous underwater vehicle docking applications in this study. At first, the structure of electromagnetic actuator and assembled configurations for autonomous underwater vehicle submerged docks was given. Then, the mutual-coupling circuit and reluctance model were built. At last, in order to verify and test this electromagnetic actuator’s power transfer characteristics, an underwater test setup was built and used in both laboratory experiment and in a modeled autonomous underwater vehicle power cabin. The test results showed that the novel electromagnetic actuator could reach the highest power transmission efficiency of 78.1% at the frequency of 115 kHz, while the output power of inductive power transmission system is 75 W at 5 mm gap in working condition. Thus, it is suitable for autonomous underwater vehicle power feeding.