A Wireless/Wired UHF Modular System Combining Energy and Data Transfer

This work presents a novel modular system for the simultaneous transmission of energy and information between unplugged trolleys in industrial plants. This is made possible by means of a suitable combination of wireless power transfer, between two consecutive trolleys and guided power transfer, between the edges of the same trolley. The goal is to support low-power communication sensor nodes all over the trolleys chain, exploiting the power available from the locomotive only. The communication among the trolleys and the locomotive takes place through battery-less LoRa nodes. The system is modular and each front-end is the result of a concurrent design of a radiating system, a power splitter, and a rectifier. The latter is designed for delivering higher portion of the available power for the lowest input power level and is used for energizing the LoRa nodes. Communication is guaranteed regardless of the position of each trolley and of possible variation of their respective order within the chain. The operating frequency is 2.45 GHz for both power and data transfer, and the successful system operation is predicted and experimentally verified for a multi-trolley arrangement, 10-meter long with a transmitted power of 36 dBm, compliant with the regulations, available from the locomotive.