DARPA Wants to Bring Wireless Power to Troops and Their Gadgets in the Field

A breakthrough by DARPA in this tech would be huge in civilian application. It would bridge the gap between electric gadget/car use now and when batteries become super capacative.

If only they meant the energy was transferred safely through the air...

Wait, is that what they mean?

Interesting.

They should just ask Apple for help. They have already filed a few patents for wireless charging technologies.

It's not really a breakthrough by DARPA. Tesla was able to power objects wirelessly around 25 miles away over a hundred years ago. Good to see we're coming around.

Transmitters make great targets, especially if I can detect it from 25 miles away.

^^Interesting complication.

I have done some work in the wireless power field but the problem is that any method of rapidly sending any useful sized amount of energy will also interfere or damage humans, thus the major hurtle in this tech

Seems like it could be even more dangerous to have this tech - if the wireless power station were taken out by an enemy, the whole group could be without power, instead of one battery shorting and the rest of the infantry being unaffected

"....if only to have a powerful electronic microwave beeming gadget in outerspace sending power to a USA reciever station....."

Is it really that difficult to wire up a charging dock to the 12v circuit of a Hummer? I can't imagine why a fuel cell would be needed when you already have a perfectly functional alternator and rectifier/regulator on board. Why re-invent the wheel?

Be interesting to see if Witricity (featured in PopSci some time ago) steps up here. They have a patented resonant wireless transfer, which I personally believe is fairly bogus.

Yet, they keep signing on with other companies (at least recently, they were pretty quiet for a long time).

We'll see. It's actually a pretty difficult problem.

For you Tesla lovers, ( and I truly admire his work) he DID NOT invent any type of practical wireless power transmission. Sorry, it just isn't true. Tesla coils will pop off huge arcs and light fluorescent lamps, but they really are not very efficient for energy transfer.

@ford2go, I am also a Telsa admirer and I agree with you in Telsa did not develop his theories to be mainstream society. The concept of wireless power being beam to my house sounds good in words. I do not think people would enjoy all kinds of lighting type towers everywhere, encouraging more lighting. As they install wind turbines across our country, many people complain “Don’t put that thing in my neighborhood ". To actually installs Telsa wireless power across the use maybe a social problem, besides actually developing it. It is a neat idea to exploit the natural power in the environment though.

@ford2go that's true, but Tesla worked on that particular issue like 70 years ago.
I've recently watched on Discovery episode about some guys that are trying to transfer power wirelessly. They had some success but noting too great or usable (just for now).

This will be the future, it's just a mater of time.
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everyone can agree that the tech is pretty easy to do.. there's already a ton of applications today in both large scale and small scale applications.

HOWEVER, for military use there are several hard-to-work-around and much needed improvements needed to current wireless charging & battery technology.

1. as previously mentioned, wireless charging is a quite easily detectable technology in its current state. granted, ONE soldier with gadget size wireless tech turned ON would be hard to detect even in an open & flat battlefield; in the gulf wars or falkland island war where soldiers were well exposed. BUT that's not the main problem, soldiers on mass with dozens and dozens chargers & power supplies turned on all at once ARE the initial problem. riding in IR invisible(see recent article) vehicles means nothing if the enemy can see you beyond IR range to begin with and follow your chargers across the battlefield. Directional antenna guided artillery would make quick work of any convoy... M1's, bradleys and strykers alike!

2. Batteries have SHORT and not very "military spec" lifespans when charged quickly via wireless charging. This is already a VERY large hurdle to the electric car and highlighting of this problem by the Auto Media(such as Top Gear) have hurt sales of cars like the Nissan Leaf though exposing the actual lifespan and replacement costs of the battery packs. Granted Lithium Polymer batteries with small cells all together as one large battery pack solves this issue and gives a massive amount of battery life per charge as compared to other lithium and non-lithium battery types.. but as any R/C hobbiest knows, they tend to have problems like having to be balanced precisely, puffing under hard use and exploding when punctured. Making them NOT suitable for either automobile use(crashing) or gadget use(dropping).. military or not.

3. the process of wirelessly powering and charging a battery. Electromagnetic Inductive charging is very inefficient, losing large amounts of its rate of charge as heat and easily detectable at range when on shielded, such as a man portable unit would be. Inductive charging requires power from a hardline due to its inefficiency as the percentage of power transfer would make it impractical to use a mobile power supply or onboard vehicular supply. Onboard vehicle would just create more logistics with fuel and having to guard more fuel convoys.. already a LARGE problem in the US military with the turbine powered M1 tanks... or as i like to call 'em "whispering death!". (you feel them coming before you hear them on a windy day)

4. For it to work DARPA would have to refine wireless charging tech inline with Near Field Magnetic Induction Communication technology . This would give the soldier free roam for the gadget in a 1-2meter bubble around the charger/power supply. This would make it usable in the field by the soldier while in charge/powered mode. While being very hard to be detectable, though completely unusable by anyone outside of the 1-2meter bubble. these could however be LINKED together in a chain, charging and powering each other when power levels & proximity warrants the application. Built within the tech secure communication would easily be incorporated and not disrupted. That would make squad chat uninterpretable unless the eavesdropper was physically withing the 1-2meter wide bubble chain.

personally having been stacked up in a sand storm so thick the end guy couldn't see my hands, never mind flippin' signals... an NFMI secured throat mic would have been soooo handy to give direction and count down the breach.

I REALLY hope DARPA gets this working soon, fumbling for a charger for your GPS or radio when you know you're being watched is not something you do. You let the thing die & forget you even have a spare battery. Dropping to a knee and searching through your or a buddies vest is the reason they're watching and not shooting right away... Guard down + visibly distracted = golden opportunity to test the aim of the enemy.

cheers, eh