Due to limitations of low power density, high cost, heavy weight, etc., the development and application of battery-powered devices are facing with unprecedented technical challenges. As a novel pattern of energization, the wireless power transfer (WPT) offers a band new way to the energy acquisition for electric-driven devices, thus alleviating the over-dependence on the battery. This paper presents an overview of WPT techniques with emphasis on working mechanisms, technical challenges, metamaterials, and classical applications. Focusing on WPT systems, this paper elaborates on current major research topics and discusses about future development trends. This novel energy transmission mechanism shows significant meanings on the pervasive application of renewable energies in our daily life.

The application of model predictive control in electrical drives has been studied extensively in the past decade. This article presents what the authors consider the most relevant contributions published in the last years, mainly focusing on three relevant issues: weighting factor calculation when multiple objectives are utilized in the cost function, current/torque harmonic distortion optimization when the power converter switching frequency is reduced, and robustness improvement under parameters uncertainties. Therefore, this article aims to enable readers to have a more precise overview while facilitating their future research work in this exciting area.

This paper presents the application of Model Predictive Control (MPC) in high-performance drives. A wide variety of machines have been considered: induction machines, synchronous machines, linear motors, switched reluctance motors, and multiphase machines. The control of these machines has been done by introducing minor and easy-to-understand modifications to the basic predictive control concept, showing the high flexibility and simplicity of the strategy. The second part of the paper is dedicated to the performance comparison of MPC with classical control techniques such as field-oriented control and direct torque control. The comparison considers the dynamic behavior of the drive and steady-state performance metrics such as inverter losses, current distortion in the motor, and acoustic noise. The main conclusion is that MPC is very competitive concerning classic control methods by reducing the inverter losses and the current distortion with comparable acoustic noise.

This paper presents a novel energy encryption strategy for wireless power transfer (WPT) systems, which can effectively improve the security performance of wirelessly transferred energy. In a WPT system, energy is expected to transfer to specific receptors as well as to switch off other unauthorized energy transmission channels, so the security of energy transmission is an important issue. In the proposed secure WPT system, the energy is encrypted by chaotically regulating the frequency of the power source. Then, the authorized receptor can receive the energy by simultaneously adjusting the circuit to decrypt the encrypted energy based on the security key obtained from the power supply, while the unauthorized receptor cannot receive the energy without knowledge of the security key. Hence, a secure energy transmission channel is established to effectively prevent unauthorized receptors from stealing the energy. In this paper, both simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the validity of the proposed encrypted WPT system.

This paper presents a homogeneous wireless power transfer (WPT) technique to continuously energize the moving target. Due to the mobility of the charging target, the misalignment between the primary and secondary coils inevitably deteriorates the energy transfer performance by adopting the conventional WPT technique, so the constant energization mechanism is the most important issue for move-and-charge systems. The proposed homogeneous WPT technique utilizes the alternate winding design to gaplessly assemble primary coils, aiming to enhance the magnetic flux density. Besides, the vertical-and-horizontal secondary coil is also implemented to further improve the capability of acquiring energy for charging targets, especially in the area of the coils gap. In such ways, the proposed homogeneous WPT technique can effectively fulfil a continuous charging mechanism for moving targets. Also, this paper deduces the equivalent circuit model to analyze the mutual effect among multiple primary coils, which offers the theory-based view for the design of move-and-charge systems. Besides, both simulation and experimental results are provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed homogeneous WPT technique for move-and-charge systems.