Wireless Electricity Transmission turns real

Stanford University’s scientists recently created a way to transmit wireless electricity to moving objects – an innovation that could charge electric vehicles and devices like cell phones and medical implants.

The scientists have probably created the future of wireless electricity transmission to nearby moving objects.

Publishing their results in Nature, the senior author Shanhui Fan exclaimed, “In addition to advancing the wireless charging of vehicles and personal devices like cell phones, our new technology may untether robotics in manufacturing, which also are on the move.” He added, “We still need to significantly increase the amount of electricity being transferred to charge electric cars, but we may not need to push the distance too much more.”

The team transmitted electricity wirelessly initially to a moving LED light bulb. This included a 1-milliwatt charge, while electric cars usually need tens of kilowatts in order to operate. Scientists are now further working on significantly growing the quantity of transferred electricity and also fine-tuning the system for improving efficiency and also extending the transfer distance, informed Stanford News.

Through wireless charging the limited driving range of plug-in electric cars could be dealt with, which is considered to be a major drawback for the cars. Electric vehicle batteries normally take up to seven hours to completely recharge. Boundaries like these could easily be surmounted by the charge-as-you-drive method. Futurism reports, the technology could also possibly help GPS navigation of driverless cars.

“In theory, one could drive for an unlimited amount of time without having to stop to recharge. The hope is that you’ll be able to charge your electric car while you’re driving down the highway. A coil in the bottom of the vehicle could receive electricity from a series of coils connected to an electric current embedded in the road,” explained Fan.

Mid-range wireless power transfer is based on magnetic resonance coupling. The electricity moving through the rotating coils of wire between the magnets makes an oscillating magnetic field. Because of the oscillating electrons in the wires, power transfers wirelessly.

The team eradicated the radio-frequency source in the transmitter and swapped it with a commercially available voltage amplifier and feedback resistor. Through this method the accurate frequency could be automatically be figured out for various distances without human interference.

The study’s lead author Sid Assawaworrait said, “Adding the amplifier allows power to be very efficiently transferred across most of the three-foot range and despite the changing orientation of the receiving coil. This eliminates the need for automatic and continuous tuning of any aspect of the circuits.”