Wireless Power Transfer System With Passive Boost Topology for AGVs

This paper presents a wireless power transfer system with a passive boost topology for automatic guided vehicles (AGVs). The system has a transmitter composed of a track coil and arrayed solenoid coils. The solenoid coils amplify the magnetic field and change the currents passively depending on the position of the receiver; they increase the current as the receiver coil approaches. Magnetic field analysis and numerical analysis using equivalent circuit equations display the system characteristics with various parameters. In comparison with a system that contains a transmitter with arrayed solenoid coils connected electrically in series, the proposed system has higher efficiency, less magnetic flux leakage and low-cost implementation. Experiments of wireless power transfer using a prototype of this system confirmed that the proposed system is 18% more efficient than the series solenoid system. The dynamic power transfer test of a moving vehicle revealed that the system successfully transferred a power of 100 W regardless of the receiver position.