Automatic Power Supply System to Underwater Vehicles

Utilizing Non-contacting Technology

Tomohiro Kojiya, Fumihiro Sato, Hidetoshi Matsuki and Tadahni Sato*
Tohoku University, *NEC Tokin Corporation, Japan
6-6-05 Matsuki Lab., Aoha,
Aramaki, Aoha-ku, Sendai, Miyagi, 980-8579, Japan
biomgOj@ec.ecei.tohoku,ac.jp

Abstract - As a method of sending electric power to The contact part of connector system is shown in
underwater vehicles, the contactless power supply system Fig.2. If the vehicle is charged underwater, this system
(CLPS) utilizing the cone-type coil is proposed. This system has been used from the past. This system has no limit of
has elfcient nature and high power transmission capability, the range of activity, hut there are some problems.
even when the fluctuation in the sea exists. Furthermore, 1. Vehicles must have highly positioning ability.
the electromagnetic force generated during power 2. The contact part must unite strongly.
transmission will he useful for maintaining the location of 3. The contact part exposes in the sea.
an underwater vehicle stably. I f this system is applied to the These problems exist on this system, so this system
vehicle, the restriction of a sphere of activity and time in is rare reliability.
inquiry is go out. So it is possible to reduce in costs. The There is a system to inquire into underwater without
electric power of 5OO[W] can be transmitted at about !)6[%] power supply. The vehicles move around only a battery.
of efficiency when the diameter of the coil is 48mm. And it Then, the time of activity becomes problem.
is calculated for the system to transmit about ZCWj in the To solve these problems we propose CLPS utilizing
same size. Furthermore, it is possible to transmit more the. electromagnetic induction [I]. The general overview
electric power by expanding the size of coil. of this system is shown in Fig.3. We assume the
autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) to target
1. INTRODUCTION applying the system. AUV approaches the charging
station in the sea and unites the each coil, AUV side and
Today, there are a lot of problems ahout energy the charging station side. Then the primary coil (the
resources on earth. It is said that we can mine oil only charging station side) is excited therefore the electric
forty years. To solve this problem, the subsea oilfield is power can be transmitted to the secondary coil (AUV
paid to attention. Additionally, there are many resources side) under the fluctuation. This system can make to
underwater, such as natural gas, manganese nodules and charge the AUV more safely and easily. Moreover, it is
so on. Besides the resources, there are many possibilities possible to expand the range of AUV activity, if the
underwater. For examples, to inquire into tidal current charging station have autonomic.
gives elucidation of climate change, to inquire into
geological feature in the seabed gives elucidation of Power distribution and
mechanism of earthquake and to inquire into living thing transmission unit
in the ocean gives development of biology. The
underwater vehicles is usually used in these inquiries.
Control
Necessity of underwater vehicles is higher and higher. equipment
So it is necessary to develop underwater vehicles much
more useful. We consider the development l?om respect inch module
of the power supply.
Primary cable
11. EFFECTIVENESS OF CLPS

The general overview of the cable system is shown in auncher

Fig.1. This system is mainly used for power supply
system to underwater vehicles. In this system, it is able
to transmit not only the electric power hut also the
control signals. On the other hand, there are many Y

inconvenient point, such as the limitation of vehicle's Vmdersea ro6ot

activity and the increase output of the vehicles to move
around under water because of the cable receives the Fig.1 General overview of cable system
fluid resistance.

0-7803-8669-8/04/$20.00 02004 IEEE 2341 -

 current loss. However we can examine the characteristic
(Undersea) in air when designing the coil because the decrease of
power and efficiency is a little in the sea water and the
[Receptacle] plug] characteristic in the salt water is similar to that in air.
Therefore, the coil design is examined in the air.

Connector of water
Fig.2 General overview of connector dc =2.2 [mm]
/
7 z \
20 turns

Marine station
-
X = 16.l[mm]
(Undersea) Feeder Fig.4 Measurement circuit

loo1 Primary voltage = IO [vl p i50

___
Fig.3 General overview of CLPS system

111. EXAMINATION
i-, 0:5, ' , ;,
, ' ,1:5,,
Secondary current [A]
Ail

,A', 0

A. Comparison of Transmission in the Air and the Sea Fig.5 Load characteristic in the salt water and the air
Up to now, we have examined CLPS in the air. In
this section, we examine the influence of the sea water
on characteristic of power transmission.
In the sea water the density of salinity is 3.2[%]- 3.8
-s 40 -
~

["A], and the temperature is -2["c]- 3O["C]. In this

examination, we use the salt water which the density is
3.3[%] and the temperature is 22["C]. Measurement 5 35
circuit and the shape of coil are shown in Fig.4. And a .-E0 - 1, = 4 [ A ]
result is shown in Fig.5. As a result, it is possible to E 30 ~ f = 100 [ ~ H I ]
transmit the electric power in the salt water as well as w coil StrUCtUTC
d e = 2 [mm]. 2 0 turn, X = 20 [mm]
that in air. But the amount of transmission power in the
sea is slightly fewer than that in air. It is thought that
magnetic flux links to the salt water and eddy current
loss is induced. To confirm this forecast, the density of
25 t
2 0 ~ " ' " ' " " " ' " ' " "
i
' ' 1
salt water is changed to O[%], 3.3[%], 20[%] and 30[%] 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Secondary current [A]
and the same experiment is done. A result is shown in
Fig.6. As a result, The efficiency decreases when the
density is increases. So it is c o n f m e d the decrease of Fig6 Characteristic to the density of salinity
efficiency and power in the salt water is caused eddy

- 2342 -
5.Design of coil for use in undewater Allowable current of this wire is 4.71[A] in air. However
Up to now, we use spiral coil which shape is a plane if CLPS is applied to charging AUVs, there is the effect
and a thin type because this coil is highly effective when of water-cooled. So it is known allowable current
adjoining. If this coil applied to undenvater CLPS, the increases about lO[A] by another experiment.
efficiency and the power transmission decrease because As it is shown in Fig.11, the coil was made to
the plane type receive the influence of tidal fluchiation accumulate and install magnetic ferrite. Number of turn
easily so misregistration occurs easily. of primary and secon* coil is 29[turns]. Measurement
Then, to solve this problem, we propose a shape of circuit is shown in Fig.12, and the result shown in
coil called "cone-type coil" which have conic type as Fig.13. And the champion data in this examination is
shown in Fig.7. This cone-type coil can make shown in Table 1. In this examination, it is possible to
misregistration decrease by conic type. Therefore, the measure primary voltage only up to 2OO[V] because of
coils don't receive the influence of tidal fluctuation the limitation of power source.
easily. In this examination, the elevation angle is From the result, the electric power of 5OO[W] can he
45[deg.]. transmitted at about 96[%] of efficiency. However, the
primary current does not reach the allowable current. It is
thought the power can be transmitted more. Therefore, it
is assumed that the coil parameter does not change even
if current increase and we estimate the performance of
cone-type coil. From calculate, if the primary voltage is
adjusted to 4OO[V], it is understood to install the primary
current within the range of allowable current
Spiral-type Cone-type
approximately. The forecast is shown in Fig.14. From
Fig.7 Coil section model this forecast, it is found that the electric power of 1800
[W] can be transmitted ( gap = 3[mm] ). If the power
can be used for charge without power loss, it is possible
C. Characteristic of cone-type coil to charge "r2D4" which is one of AUVs in 0.1[C][2]. It
We compare cone-type coil with spiral-type coil takes 10 hours or more to charge full. But if the coil
which we have considered basic examination. The shapes expands, more and more power can be transmitted. So, it
of coil using in this examination is shown in Fig.8. And makes the time of charging short and allowable gap
the condition of each coil, such as air core radius, extends.
number of t u n and conductor diameter is made same.
The result is shown in Fig.9. As a result, it is clear that
Number of
conductor diameter -=zo
the power transmission Characteristic of cone-type coil
improves comparing with that of spiral-type. That i!i why dC=2.0[mml t
the shape of bending like the cone-type makes maLaetic
flux concentrating, and leakage inductance decreases
comparing with when using spiral type. In previous
section, it is said that the influence of tidal fluctuation
must be taken in consideration, so we examine the air core radius
characteristic to misregistaration. It is paid attention to F20[mm]
coupling factor, the appearance of its change is
examined. The result is shown in Fig.10. As a result, it is Spiral-type
confirmed the coupling factor keeps almost same value
when it occurs misregistaration at a certain gap. That is
why the distance between coils becomes narrow on the
conductor diameter
dc=2.0[mm] 7 "Iber
tum=20
Of

one side, on another side, the distance between coils

wide. And the coupling factor indicates almost same
value at a certain gap, so the characteristic of power
transmission and efficiency is the same even if it occurs
misregistration. air core radius
F20[mm]
D.Making the coil high power Cone-type
It is expected that the device for power transmission
is small and high power. So it is necessary to make the Fig.8 Structure of coils
cone-type coil high power and t o - examine the
performance of the coil. To make the coils, we use litr
wire ( diameter = l[mm], numher of twist = 100).

2343
 100

Table I
Champion data of power transmission

I Primary ]Secondary
VWll 214.8 I 165.6
,
20
@P = 20 ["I

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

Secondary Current [A]
1

Fig.9 Characteristic of cone-type and spiral-type

1.2
1
I .

Cap = 2 [mm]

0.7 Fig.12 Measurement Circuit

-
.-8
p. Gap = IO [mm]
U
Gap = I5 [mm]
0.5
I- Gap = 20 [mm]

Fig.10 Characteristic of coupling factor

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1
Secondary Current [AI
Fig. 13 Characteritic power transmission
(Primaly voltage = 2OO[V])

Fig.11 Structure of high power coil

- 2344 -
 IV. CONCLUSlON

In this paper, the possibility of applying CLPS to

charging AUV. It is examined the shape of coil suitable
for use in underwater consequently it is proposed
+ cone-type coil which is high power device and can
transmit the power even if it occurs misregistration. In
present size, there is the possibility of charging AUVs.

f = 100
v,
[kHrl
= 400 [VI
. -*
Y
It is necessary to prove this forecast and to construct
CLPS with cone type coil for AUVs.

REFERENCES
[I] Y.Obata, FSato, H.Matsuki, J.Murakami, TSato.
0 2 4 6 8 1 0 1 2 1 4 "Considerations on contactless power transmission in
Secondary Current[Al the sea," Journal of the Magnetics Society of Japan,
vo1.25, pp. 1007-1010,April~OOl.
Fig.14 Forecast of power transmission
[Z] Web Site of Ura Lab., University of Tokyo,
(Primary voltage = 4OO[V])
http://underwater.iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp/

2345