Computational Design for Digitally Fabricated 3D Inductive Power Transfer Coils

The geometric shapes and the relative position of coils influence the performance of a three-dimensional (3D) inductive power transfer system. In this paper, we propose a coil design method for specifying the positions and the shapes of a pair of coils to transmit the desired power in 3D. Given region of interests (ROIs) for designing the transmitter and the receiver coils on two surfaces, the transmitter coil is generated around the center of its ROI first. The center of the receiver coil is estimated as a random seed position in the corresponding 3D surface. At this position, we use the heatmap method with electromagnetic constraints to iteratively extend the coil until the desired power can be transferred via the set of coils. In each step, the shape of the extension, i.e. a new turn of the receiver coil, is found as a spiral curve based on the convex hulls of adjacent turns in the 2D projection plane along their normal direction. Then, the optimal position of the receiver coil is found by maximizing the efficiency of the system. In the next step, the position and the shape of the transmitter coil are optimized based on the fixed receiver coil using the same method. This zig-zag optimization process iterates until an optimum is reached. Simulations and experiments with digitally fabricated prototypes were conducted and the effectiveness of the proposed 3D coil design method was verified. Possible future research directions are highlighted well.

Wireless Power Transfer System for Mobile Robots via Magnetic Resonant Coupling with Impedance Matching

Wireless power transfer via magnetic resonant coupling can be used to supply power to a mobile robot within a few meters of a transmitter coil. However, when the robot moves or its power consumption fluctuates, its input impedance varies and causes power reflection. Therefore, we propose the use of a driver coil on the transmitter side to match the input impedance. The input impedance is matched and power reflection is eliminated by regulating the coupling coefficient between the driver and the transmitter. During experiments, the transmitting efficiency showed good agreement with the calculated value, and the input impedance was matched under varying distances and load resistances. Therefore, the proposed system was demonstrated to solve the power reflection problem in mobile robots.

Magnetic Flux Density Measurement Platform for an Inductive Wireless Power Transmitter Coil Design

This paper presents a platform developed for automated magnetic flux density measurement. The platform was designed to be used to measure the magnetic flux density of the transmitter/receiver coil of an inductive wireless power transfer system. The magnetic flux density of a transmitter was measured using a small, 3-axis search coil. The search coil was positioned in the 3D space above the transmitter coil using a 3D positioning mechanism and used to measure the magnetic flux density at a specific point. The data was then sent to a computer application to visualize the magnetic flux density. The measured magnetic field could be used in combination with electromagnetic field solvers to design and optimize transmitter coils for inductive wireless power transfer systems.

AuraRing

Wearable computing platforms, such as smartwatches and head-mounted mixed reality displays, demand new input devices for high-fidelity interaction. We present AuraRing, a wearable magnetic tracking system designed for tracking fine-grained finger movement. The hardware consists of a ring with an embedded electromagnetic transmitter coil and a wristband with multiple sensor coils. By measuring the magnetic fields at different points around the wrist, AuraRing estimates the five degree-of-freedom pose of the ring. AuraRing is trained only on simulated data and requires no runtime supervised training, ensuring user and session independence. It has a resolution of 0.1 mm and a dynamic accuracy of 4.4 mm, as measured through a user evaluation with optical ground truth. The ring is completely self-contained and consumes just 2.3 mW of power.

Model of Magnetically Shielded Ferrite-Cored Eddy Current Sensor

Computationally fast electromagnetic models of eddy current sensors are required in model-based measurements, machine interpretation approaches or in the sensor design phase. If a sensor geometry allows it, the analytical approach to the modeling has significant advantages in comparison to numerical methods, most notably less demanding implementation and faster computation. In this paper, we studied an eddy current sensor consisting of a transmitter coil with a finitely long I ferrite core, which was screened with a finitely thick magnetic shield. The sensor was placed above a conductive and magnetic half-layer. We used vector magnetic potential formulation of the problem with a truncated region eigenfunction expansion, and obtained expressions for the transmitter coil impedance and magnetic potential in all subdomains. The modeling results are in excellent agreement with the results using the finite element method. The model was also compared with the impedance measurement in the frequency range from 5 kHz to 100 kHz and the agreement is within 3% for the resistance change due to the presence of the half-layer and 1% for the inductance change. The presented model can be used for measurement of properties of metallic objects, sensor lift-off or nonconductive coating thickness.

Transmitter Module Optimization for Wireless Power Transfer Systems with Single Transmitter to Multiple Receivers

Most of the coil designs for wireless power transfer (WPT) systems have been developed based on the “single transmitter to a single receiver (S-S)” WPT systems by the empirical design approaches, partial domain searches, and shape optimization methods. Recently, the layout optimizations of the receiver coil for S-S WPT systems have been developed using gradient-based optimization, fixed-grid (FG) representation, and smooth boundary (SB) representation. In this paper, the new design optimization of the transmitter module for the “single transmitter to multiple receivers (S-M)” WPT system with the resonance optimization for the S-M WPT system is proposed to extremize the total power transfer efficiency while satisfying the load voltage (i.e., rated power) required by each receiver and the total mass used for the transmitter coil. The proposed method was applied to an application model (e.g., S-M WPT systems with two receiver modules). Using the sensitivity of design variables with respect to the objective function (i.e., total power transfer efficiency) and constraint functions (i.e., load voltage of each receiver module and transmitter coil mass) at each iteration of the optimization process, the proposed method determines the optimal transmitter module that can maximize the total power transfer efficiency while several constraints are satisfied. Finally, the optimized transmitter module for the S-M WPT system was demonstrated through comparison with experiments under the same conditions as the simulation environment.

Initial Results on Primary Field Cancellation of Magnetic Induction Spectroscopy Technique for Fetal Acidosis Detection using COMSOL Multiphysics

Monitoring of fetal condition during labor could save hundred lives in a single year. During labor, fetus is at critical condition as acidosis may occur suddenly without any early symptoms. Invasive method such as Fetal Blood Sampling (FBS) has been used to detect the decline in pH level of fetus. However, fetal loss rate after FBS may range from 1.4% up to 25%. In this paper, magnetic field induction spectroscopy was implemented to determine fetal acidosis by using primary magnetic field cancellation technique. Magnetic Induction Spectroscopy (MIS) probe was design where transmitter coil (TX) is perpendicular to receiver coil (RX). The result shows that the secondary magnetic field produced have been successfully measured without any interruption from primary magnetic field. By using transmitter input 1A, it shows that voltage is inversely proportional to the blood pH due to the conductivity properties of blood.

Wireless Power Transfer Using Harvested Radio Frequency Energy with Magnetic Resonance Coupling to Charge Mobile Device Batteries

This research paper presents the design of a wireless power transfer (WPT) circuit integrated with magnetic resonance coupling (MRC) and harvested radio frequency (RF) energy to wirelessly charge the battery of a mobile device. A capacitor (100 µF, 16 V) in the RF energy harvesting circuit stored the converted power, and the accumulated voltage stored in the capacitor was 9.46 V. The foundation of the proposed WPT prototype circuit included two coils (28 AWG)—a transmitter coil, and a receiver coil. The transmitter coil was energized by the alternating current (AC), which produced a magnetic field, which in turn induced a current in the receiver coil. The harvested RF energy (9.46 V) was converted into AC, which energized the transmitter coil and generated a magnetic field. The electronics in the receiver coil then converted the AC into direct current (DC), which became usable power to charge the battery of a mobile device. The experimental setup based on mathematical modeling and simulation displayed successful charging capabilities of MRC, with the alternate power source being the harvested RF energy. Mathematical formulae were applied to calculate the amount of power generated from the prototype circuit. LTSpice simulation software was applied to demonstrate the behavior of the different components in the circuit layout for effective WPT transfer.