Safe Power Delivery Using a Reconfigurable Mesh of Inductive Transceivers

现有的无线电力传输(WPT)系统消除了通过电缆为移动电话等便携式设备充电的不便，还可以帮助解决将电力输送到“难以到达的地方”的问题，例如为医疗植入物供电或充电。然而，现有的绝大多数WPT解决方案都受到单向、点对点系统的限制，即有一个专用电源和一个收集传输能量的专用接收器。在这项工作中，我们将开发新一代无线电力传输技术，其中我们将创建有源无线电力收发器网络，使电力能够安全地在网络周围、远距离和高效率地进行路由。这项工作中将创建的技术将使无线电源系统能够部署在更多的应用场景中，因为将创建的能力将显著增加。例如：1.从具有有源发送器和无源接收器的系统转移到有源-有源、收发机-收发机方法将使功率能够同时在磁链路上的任一方向上移动(“双向无线功率传输”)，以及使系统能够以较低的耦合系数运行(由于有源-有源方法所创造的调谐灵活性)。以较低的耦合系数运行，固有地意味着电源和接收器之间的传输距离更大。无线电力收发机网络(而不是点对点链路)的创建，其中任何数量的发射机可以自由地加入和离开网络，开辟了许多其他新的应用，否则这些应用是不实用的，或者在某些情况下是可能的。它将允许设备以一种特别的方式参与到网络中接收和传输电力(随着便携式设备的移动)，并帮助在多个跳跃中将电力从源中继到节点，从而增加无线电力传输的范围。它将使许多设备能够同时从单一传输源高效充电，例如为桌子上的多个设备供电，为工具箱或箱子中的多个电动工具充电，为士兵背包中的军事装备等充电。这项工作的第二个输出，尽管对几乎所有应用环境中成功部署无线电源绝对关键，但在人和导电物体(其有可能以类似于感应滚刀烹饪的方式加热)的情况下安全运行。虽然我们使用的高频无线电源解决方案自然不太容易加热异物，但从安全角度来看，总是存在传统无线电源系统需要关闭或在低功率下运行的情况。收发信机网络的使用增加了从异物及其周围传送电力的可能性，而不必降低电力输送以维护安全，这在简单的点对点系统中通常是必需的。

Existing wireless power transfer (WPT) systems remove the inconvenience of charging portable devices, such as mobile phones, through cables, and can also help solve the problem of getting power into "hard to reach places", such as powering or recharging medical implants. However, the vast majority of existing WPT solutions are limited by being unidirectional, point-to-point systems, i.e. there is one dedicated power source, and one dedicated receiver that collects the transmitted energy. In this work, we will develop a new generation of wireless power transfer technology where we will create networks of active wireless power transceivers, allowing power to be routed, safety, around the network, over long distances and with high efficiency. The technologies that will be created in this work will enable wireless power systems to be deployed in vastly more application scenarios due to the significant increase in capability that will be created. For example:1. The move from systems with active transmitters and passive receivers to an active-active, transceiver-transceiver approach will concurrently enable power to be moved in either direction across the magnetic link ("bidirectional wireless power transfer", as well as enabling operation of the system with lower coupling factors (due to the tuning flexibility that the active-active approach creates). Operation with lower coupling factors inherently means greater transmission distance between the power source and the receiver.2. The creation of a network of wireless power transceivers (rather than point-to-point links), where any number of transmitters can freely join and leave the network, opens up many other new applications that would otherwise not be practical, or in some cases be possible. It will allow devices to participate, in an ad-hoc way in receiving and transmitting power into the network (as portable devices are moved around), and helping relay power from a source to a node over a number of hops, increasing the range of wireless power delivery. It will enable the efficient charging of many devices concurrently from a single transmission source, in applications such as powering a number of devices on a desk, charging many power-tools in a toolbox or case, military equipment in a soldier's backpack etc.A secondary output from this work, although one that is absolutely critical to successful deployments of wireless power in almost all application contexts, is safe operation in the prescience of people, and conducting objects (which have the potential to heat up in a similar way to induction-hob cooking). Whilst the high frequency wireless power solutions that we employ are naturally less prone to heating foreign objects, there are always scenarios where a traditional wireless power system will need to either shut off, or operate at reduced power due from a safety perspective. The use of a network of transceivers adds the possibility to route power away from and around foreign objects without having to degrade the power delivery to maintain safety, as is often required in simple point-to-point systems.