Ultra-cyberphysical system for truly wireless charging

Nowadays, wired charging and the need for battery replacements are still critical barriers for unlimited, scalable, and sustainable connectivity and mobility over time in our increasingly digitized, data-driven, and autonomous societies. UPRISING is committed to radio frequency (RF)-wireless power transfer (WPT) for breaking this barrier because of its potential for realizing long-range multi-user mobile charging. Still, the main challenges of RF-WPT technology are the low end-to-end power transfer efficiency (PTE) and the lack of technology standardization. There is an urgent need of developing PTE-boosting, cost-efficient, and risk-aware guarantees on people’s exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation, to make RF-WPT attractive and competitive. UPRISING introduces and optimizes a cyberphysical system consisting of spatially distributed and flexible energy transmitters, reconfigurable metasurfaces, sensing infrastructure, WPT management system, and holistic charging protocols, addressing these challenges, thus, leading to a functional and competitive indoor RF-WPT system. Potential innovations may specifically come from novel charging hardware topology configurations, EMF radiation exposure characterization frameworks, risk-aware dynamic EMF control, and intelligent and holistic WPT and wireless information management. 

PI: Onel Alcaraz López (onel.alcarazlopez@oulu.fi)

• 09-2025: Osmel M. Rosabal, one of the key active contributors of UPRISING, just defended his PhD thesis entitled: Sustainable radio frequency wireless energy transfer for massive Internet of Things Congratulations Osmel!

• 09-2025: Seminars and workshops with distinguished visitors, including Prof. Lieven de Stricker (KU Leuven, Belgium), Prof. Liesbet van der Perre (KU Leuven, Belgium), and Prof. Vimal Bhatia (IIT Indore, India).

• 07-2025: We propose a time allocation protocol for UAV-enabled wireless-powered underground communication network in this paper.

• 07-2025: We optimize the beamforming for an energy transmitter equipped with an intelligent transmitting surface in this IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications paper.

• 06-2025: We assess the potential performance gains that movable antennas may bring for indoor RF-WPT in this short paper.

• 04-2025: We explore an interesting interception of WPT and radars in this GLOBECOM workshops paper, where the energy transmitters need to locate first the harvesting devices using RF sensing and then use this information for energy beamforming.

• 02-2025: We explore beamforming and waveform optimization for a RF-WPT system with a beyond diagonal reconfigurable intelligent surface in this WCNC paper, which has been further extended in this other submission.

• 12-2024: We delve into charging scheduling with reinforcement learning in this GLOBECOM paper.

• 12-2024: Check a performance analysis of a passive/active RIS aided wireless-powered IoT network with nonlinear energy harvesting in this IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications paper.

• 11-2024: We optimize waveform and beam focusing for a near-field RF-WPT system with a dynamic metasurface antenna at the transmitter and non-linear energy harvesters in this IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications paper.

• 09-2024: We assess the end-to-end power transfer efficiency of a WPT system, and optimize beamforming & waveform in this SPAWC paper. This has been further extended in this work submitted to IEEE IoT Journal.

• 03-2024: Special issue on "RF Energy Harvesting and Wireless Power Transfer for IoT" for MDPI Sensors. Call for papers until Nov. 2024.

• 01-2024: MSc. Amir Azarbahram is visiting Prof. Popovski's group at Aalborg University for 3 months to research wireless charging protocols.

• 12-2023: We design WPT energy beamformers suited to dynamic metasurface antennas in our IEEE Wireless Communications Letters paper, and radio stripes deployment strategies for indoor WPT in our WCNC 2024 conference paper. The radio stripes scenario has been further assessed in this full paper.

• 10-2023: Relevant results on EMF assessment and the impact of high frequencies and near field channels were compiled in a magazine paper and submitted to IEEE Wireless Communications. Final version here.

• 07-2023: We presented RF as a fundamental enabler for energy-sustainable IoT connectivity in our IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society paper and how to make it self-sustainable in our IEEE Access paper.

• 03-2023: PI O. López was the lecturer of the post-graduate course: Principles and Advanced Techniques for RF Power Transfer and Energy Harvesting -Enabled Wireless Networks, wherein the fundamentals and prospects of the RF-WPT were discussed. The course served as an intensive training for UPRISING's new members.

• 01-2023: MSc. Amir Azarbahram started as a PhD student funded by UPRISING. Welcome, Amir!

• 12-2022: MSc. Abdul Basit Khattak started as a PhD student funded by UPRISING. Welcome, Abdul!

• 11-2022: PI O. López was a plenary speaker at the IEEE Workshop on Communication Networks and Power Systems (WCNPS): “Enabling Sustainable IoT: A look at RF Wireless Power Transfer Technology”, showcasing UPRISING's vision.

• 09-2022: Initial measurements and results on WPT for Bluetooth Low Energy were presented at the 14th International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control Systems (ICUMT), Valencia, October 11-13, 2022.

• 07/08-2022: Applications for the open positions are received and processed. Interviews with the most prospective applicants are carried out. Recruitment is finalized with two hired PhD students.

• 06-2022: UPRISING is funded by the Academy of Finland. Two research positions are open and a recruitment campaign starts.