英开发利用可控微波波束为机器人实现远程无线充电新技术

Professor Robertson added: "Wireless power transfer to robots provides many exciting opportunities: in the 1960s, Raytheon demonstrated that a large model helicopter could be remotely powered by a microwave beam and elevated to 50 feet. However, there are many challenges that need to be addressed to make such an approach economical and safe."

Professor Arumugam Nallanathan, Professor in Wireless Communications at King’s College London, said: "This research will bring significant benefits to a range of applications including environmental monitoring, tactical surveillance, intelligent transportation, wireless healthcare, future factories, and smart cities."

The SWIFT project will run for three years.

In a separate development, the University of Leeds became a founding member of the EPSRC UK Robotics and Autonomous Systems Network on June 25. The Network will bring together the UK’s core academic capabilities in robotics innovation under national coordination for the first time and encourage academic and industry collaborations that will accelerate the development and adoption of robotics and autonomous systems.

The founding network members are Imperial College London, Bristol Robotics Lab, University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, University of Leeds, University of Liverpool, Loughborough University, University of Oxford, University of Sheffield, University of Southampton, University College London, and University of Warwick.