Abstract
In the concept of Intelligent Space, the battery capacity requirements and tasks for self localization in the mobile robot could be relieved by assistance such as wireless power transmission and position sensing from the surrounding space. Wireless power transmission based on magnetic resonance coupling has a effective range of about antenna diameter which is expected to be suitable for charging mobile robots. If the position sensing based on magnetic resonance coupling is also possible, both wireless power transmission and position sensing could be possible by single equipment which is a reasonable system. Therefore, this paper describes the proposal and experimental consideration of novel position sensor based on magnetic resonance coupling. The proposed sensor is composed by transmitter array antenna implemented under the floor and target antenna built into the target. Here, a single transmitter antenna can be selected from the array antenna using the switching unit. There are two big differences from the other sensor systems. First is that the wireless power transmission could be also possible by almost the same equipment. Second is that the sustainable battery-less position sensing is possible since the target does not require any battery. This is possible since the position sensing is based on reflection coefficient which could be measured by transmitter antenna side. The position is estimated by matching the coupling coefficient between antennas calculated from the reflection coefficient with the database of coupling coefficient and position. Finally, the performance of the position sensor is evaluated through experiments.
