Wireless power transmission is actually commoner than we thought until we saw a video of a drone that flies without a battery. The technology involves transmission from an electrical source to an electrical load without using a conductor made with human hands, or a robot for that matter.
There are no wires or physical connectors in the interface. Instead, the process uses electric, magnetic or electromagnetic fields. The transmitter sends the energy across open space to a receiver that converts it back to electricity. There are two main applications of this principle.
The Non-Radiative Method of Wireless Power
The non-radiative method uses inductive coupling between coils of wire enabling energy to travel through a magnetic field. This is how plastic-coated electric toothbrushes charge, and smartcards communicate with scanners. It may not be long before we have wireless cellphone chargers. Now that would be a good idea!
An Exciting New Development: Power Beaming
Electricity can also travel between distant networks using capacitive coupling between two nodes. This is what we sometimes hear humming under high-voltage power lines.
We can cause this to occur deliberately by power-beaming energy using microwave and laser beams. Scientists are hoping to use this for solar power satellites within twenty years. They are also having fun with drones.
Dr. Samer Aldhaher works at the Imperial College, London. You heard his voice in the video. He is a boffin when it comes to the design and optimization of switched-mode circuits, and development of novel electronic tuning methods for inductive power transfer applications. In other words how to get power beaming to work.
His quadcopter is not ready for a flight across the countryside just yet. The power only beams across a distance of thirteen centimeters. That said, Dr. Samer Aldhaher is off to a ‘flying start’ and we wish him well with his work.
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