Methods for steering a magnetic field for smart wireless power transmission

A system for wireless power transmission comprising:

• a receiver coil having an axis, wherein the receiver coil is a winding of an electric motor;
• a gimbal arrangement;
• a transmitter coil having an axis and mounted to the gimbal arrangement;
• a first actuator coupled to the gimbal arrangement for changing an azimuth angle of the axis of the transmitter coil;
• a second actuator coupled to the gimbal arrangement for changing an elevation angle of the axis of the transmitter coil;
• a computer system programmed to control the first and second actuators and an amplitude of current to be supplied to the transmitter coil to generate a resultant magnetic field having a magnetic field line which is located along the axis of the receiver coil by generating amplitude and frequency commands representing an amplitude and a frequency of an alternating electric current to be supplied to the transmitter coil;
• and
• a current source for supplying current having the respective amplitude to the transmitter coil, wherein the current source comprises:
• a power regulator that receives the amplitude command from the computer system and outputs a direct electric current having the amplitude;
• and
• a variable frequency drive circuit that receives the frequency command from the computer system and receives the direct electric current from the power regulator, converts the direct electric current into an alternating electric current with the frequency, and supplies the alternating electrical current having the amplitude and frequency to the transmitter coil.

A system for wireless power transmission comprising:

• a receiver coil having an axis;
• a gimbal arrangement;
• a transmitter coil having an axis and mounted to the gimbal arrangement;
• a first actuator coupled to the gimbal arrangement for changing an azimuth angle of the axis of the transmitter coil;
• a second actuator coupled to the gimbal arrangement for changing an elevation angle of the axis of the transmitter coil;
• a computer system programmed to control the first and second actuators and an amplitude of current to be supplied to the transmitter coil to generate a resultant magnetic field having a magnetic field line which is located along the axis of the receiver coil;
• and
• a current source for supplying current having the respective amplitude to the transmitter coil,
• wherein the computer system is further programmed to use location data representing the position and orientation of the receiver coil and unit vectors of each magnetic field at any given position in a defined space to determine the amplitude required to multiply each unit vector in order to achieve a desired orientation and intensity of the resultant magnetic field.