Noncontact power supply for seafloor geodetic observing robot system

A new and effective seafloor geodetic observing robot network system, which consists of several submarine stations situated in regions susceptible to interplate earthquakes, has been proposed and is under construction in Japan. Each station, equipped with an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) dock, is connected to a land facility by cables providing power and communication. Near the AUV dock, three or four seafloor reference stations will be set up for geodetic observations. In this system, a noncontact power supply is required for a battery-driven AUV to conduct observations for extended durations. A small, intelligent, efficient, high-power noncontact feed system of 400 W capacity with an inverting efficiency of 77% in salt water has been developed. It has been shown to be effective in a water tank experiment in which the noncontact power supply automatically fed power to an AUV for 3 days.