Keynote speakers
Monday, April 29th
David Boyle, Imperial College London, UK (david.boyle@imperial.ac.uk)
Dimitrios Zorbas, Tyndall National Institute, Ireland (dimzorbas@ieee.org)
Wireless power transfer with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can help to overcome connectivity and maintenance challenges for wireless sensors and actuators in remote and extreme environments. The ability to wirelessly recharge devices’ energy buffers is particularly desirable. Wireless power transfer (WPT) is a promising method to guarantee energy availability for low-power IoT applications and CPS. Unlike typical energy harvesting methods, this approach can supply predictable and uninterrupted power to devices. In this talk, we focus on two recent complementary approaches to WPT; namely radio frequency (RF) and inductive power transfer (IPT). RF power transfer may allow multiple devices to be charged at the same time, enabling untethered and low-maintenance industrial IoT applications. Inductive power transfer, on the other hand, may be more suited to rapidly recharging devices at closer range while collecting sensor data and otherwise maintaining the network. We will explore the potential for using WPT methods in cyber-physical applications and extend this to systems of cyber-physical systems. Emphasis will be placed on recent experimental results in IPT and data collection using UAVs, before considering several exciting emergent research directions..