Performance Characterization of Frequency-Selective Wireless Power Transfer Toward Scalable Untethered Magnetic Actuation
For researchers in wireless power transfer and microrobotics, this work provides a theoretical and experimental framework for scaling untethered actuation, though it is an incremental step limited to three actuators.
This paper quantifies the scalability of frequency-selective wireless power transfer for untethered magnetic actuation, showing that the number of individually addressable resonators depends primarily on their quality factor (Q-factor). Experimental validation with three actuators at distinct frequencies (734, 785, 855 kHz) demonstrated no cross-triggering, confirming the theoretical relationship.
Frequency-selective wireless power transfer provides a feasible route to enable independent actuation and control of multiple untethered robots in a common workspace; however, the scalability remains unquantified, particularly the maximum number of resonators that can be reliably addressed within a given frequency bandwidth. To address this, we formulate the relationship between resonator quality factor (Q-factor) and the number of individually addressable inductor-capacitor (LC) resonant energy harvesters within a fixed radio-frequency (RF) spectrum, and we convert selectively activated harvested energy into mechanical motion. We theoretically proved and experimentally demonstrated that scalability depends primarily on the Q-factor. For this proof-of-concept study, we define effective series resistance as a function of frequency allocating bandwidths to discrete actuators. We provide design equations for scaling untethered magnetic actuation with Q-factor optimization. Resonator networks spanning bandwidths from 100kHz to 1MHz were analyzed to quantify how increasing the number of resonators affects independent addressability. We validated the approach experimentally by fabricating three centimeter-scale untethered actuators that selectively trigger the motion of mechanical beams at 734kHz, 785kHz, and 855kHz. We also characterized the generated mechanical force and the activation bandwidth of each actuator, confirming that no unintended cross-triggering occurred.