Three EE senior students have been awarded funding support from NASA for their research on Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) systems.
The students are investigating WPT based on Strongly-Coupled Magnetic Resonance to facilitate power transfer between the ground and aerial vehicles, thereby increasing their operational time.
The research idea originated from NASA's MARS 2020 mission, in which Ingenuity made history as the first aircraft to fly on Mars and assist Perseverance's exploration. Ingenuity's battery capacity is primarily reserved for equipment temperature regulation, and although it has a solar panel, it cannot recharge from the rover and must fly during specific times to avoid draining its reserve.
The team members, Blake Janowicz, Jason Knight-Han and Andrew Terrazas with Dr. Nansong Wu as their advisor, have created a successful prototype system and demonstration and are working to publish their research results.