Development of Microwave Power Transmission for Electrically Driven Off-Road Vehicles

摘要

This is the first trial of an electric agricultural vehicle, that has neither a combustion engine nor batteries but only electric motors. Electric power is transmitted by means of microwaves. Microwave power transmission is envisaged as part of a novel and revolutionary system for generating clean energy using power stations in space. Employing microwave power transmission technology to power agricultural vehicles, means that vehicles can be designed and developed that produce no emissions, require no heavy battery, are small and light, have low energy consumption and have a flexible form. A small model agricultural vehicle was designed and constructed with a rectifying antenna. The first test run of the vehicle using microwave energy was successfully completed at Kyoto University in June 2001. Further experiments were conducted with an automatic vehicle following system of transmitting antenna in 2002. Some problems such as low transmission efficiency still remain and efforts are continuing to solve them.