Power beaming to a micro aerial vehicle using an active phased array

Abstract

A power beaming system to a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) using 5.8GHz microwaves has been developed. The system consists of three sub-systems; a pointing system, a tracking system, and a receiving system. The MAV is tracked using the phase information of pilot signal. Software retro-directive function has been realized through a PC control and a microwave beam is pointed to the MAV using an active phased array. The beam divergence was about 9deg and the beam steering angle was from -9deg to +9deg. Light-weight flexible rectenna array made of cupper tapes and a thin polyimide film was mounted on a wing of the MAV model, and the electric motor was driven by the received power.The weight per unit reception area was 26mg/cm 2 .