A research group led by Takayuki Matsumuro, a researcher at the Wave Engineering Laboratory of the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), has developed a new technology for wirelessly transmitting power to drones in flight. This technology forms a special beam called an “air-core beam”, which is designed to supply power to drones without affecting their cameras and other equipment.
“An air-core beam has the characteristic that the phase of the radio waves emitted from the antenna is rotated in a spiral shape, causing the radio waves to cancel each other on the propagation axis, resulting in zero power at the centre,” the team explains.
In an experiment, the power transmitted using the air-core beam was converted to direct current, and the group succeeded in lighting only LEDs located away from the centre of the drone. The fact that the central LED was not lit confirmed that interference had been avoided.
The group intends for the technology to be the foundation for supplying power to drones in flight while they carry out various missions, with wireless power transmission being put to practical use and applied to a variety of fields in the future. “This technology is an important step towards realising drones that can fly for long periods of time and perform various missions by transmitting power from the ground.”
The results of this research, which was commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, are being presented at Wireless Japan x Wireless Technology Park 2025, held at Tokyo Big Sight from May 28.
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Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International
