In a new development, a power transmission technology makes it feasible to charge devices conveniently without using any wires or plugs. Kitchen appliances, warehouse robots, and even phones or laptops can receive electrical energy anywhere in the radius of the technology.
Importantly, power transfer continues even if the device is in motion, and for this reason the technology could one day power electric vehicles when they are moving.
Meanwhile, the framework of wireless power transfer have been known for some time, but currently used systems are not able to power devices placed within a large area. In the current system, the use of a single large transmitter to provide power to a large area leads to unwanted electromagnetic exposure, and prevents the control for power to flow into individual devices.
In the event of use of several small transistors, the position of receiving devices must be known, and the transmitter and receiver need to be precisely aligned. This implies the system either has to use fixed charging points or incorporate position sensors, communication protocols, and process to track the location of each receiver.
The main idea is to arrange the transmitters in a grid with the current in neighboring transmitters flowing in opposite directions – for example, current flowing in a clockwise direction in one transmitter and counter-clockwise direction in its neighboring transmitters.
The structure appears like a grid in a chessboard of positive and negative transmission coils with interspersed with magnetic flux. A receiver above the grid of transmitters seizes the magnetic flux between negative and positive transmitters, which produces an electric current to charge the device.
The simple yet sophisticated nature of the method is its beauty.
