This paper explores the feasibility of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) battery charging on power transmission lines via a clamp-on inductive wireless power transfer scheme. Both electric and magnetic fields are considered with respect to the UAV’s communication systems and electronics integrity. An induced AC voltage is applied to an onboard multi-cell lithium-ion polymer battery charging circuit with voltage and current measurements transmitted via Bluetooth to a monitoring station. UAV flight time and battery charge time are also measured along with a proposal for a non-air core clamp-on transformer for inducing adequate peak voltage levels in the charge circuit.
