Wireless recharging on the move

The research, conducted at North Carolina State University, could lead to so-called highway ‘stations’ that can recharge electric vehicles wirelessly as the vehicles drive by.

‘We’ve made changes to both the receiver and the transmitter in order to make wireless energy transfer safer and more efficient,’ said Dr Srdjan Lukic, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the research.

The researchers developed a series of segmented transmitter coils, each of which broadcasts a low-level electromagnetic field. The researchers also created a receiver coil that is the same size as each of the transmitter coils, and which can be placed in a car or other mobile platform.

The researchers modified the receiver so that when it comes into range and couples with a transmitter coil, that specific transmitter coil automatically increases its current – boosting its magnetic field strength and the related transfer of energy by 400 per cent. The transmitter coil’s current returns to normal levels when the receiver passes out of the range of the transmitter.