Wireless Power Transfer for Aircraft IoT Applications: System Design and Measurements
Morteza Tavana, Mustafa Özger, Aygün Baltaci, Bernd Schleicher, Dominic Schupke, Çiçek Çavdar
Abstract
Sensors currently deployed on board have wired connectivity, which increases weight and maintenance costs for aircraft. Removing cables for wireless communications of sensors on board alleviates the cost, however, the powering of sensors becomes a challenge inside aircraft. Wireless power transfer (WPT) via radio-frequency (RF) signals is an emerging solution to remotely power sensors for battery-less operation with long-lived capacitors. In this article, we design a WPT system for aircraft IoT-type applications, including low data rate inside (LI) sensors by determining the number, location, and tilt angles of WPT transmitters given constraints based on the cabin geometry and duty cycle of the sensors. We formulate a robust optimization problem to address the WPT system design under channel uncertainties. We also derive an equivalent integer linear programming and solve that for an optimal deployment to satisfy the duty cycle requirements of LI sensors. We perform experiments inside the cabin to validate the wireless avionics intracommunications channel model. Our simulations demonstrate the feasibility of 90% robust design with 14 WPT transmitters for duty cycles less than 0.1% while keeping the human radiation exposure below the recommended reference value of 4.57 W/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> .