An apparatus in which electric power is generated for an electrical load from differentials in electric field strengths within a vicinity of powerlines includes: a plurality of electrodes separated and electrically insulated from one another for enabling differentials in voltage resulting from differentials in electric field strength experienced there at; and electrical components electrically connected therewith and configurable to establish one or more electric circuits whereby voltage differentials cause a current to flow through the established electric circuit for powering the electrical load. Preferably, the apparatus includes a control assembly having one or more voltage-detector components configured to detected relative voltages of the electrodes; and a processor enabled to configurebased on the detected voltages and based on voltage and electric current specifications for powering the electrical loadone or more of the electrical components to establish an electric circuit for powering the electrical load.

A wireless power transmitting device transmits power by wireless to a wireless power receiving device through magnetic coupling between a feeding coil and a receiving coil and includes: a feeding circuit including a power conversion circuit that converts DC power into AC power of a drive frequency and a feeding coil unit including the feeding coil that receives the AC power supplied from the power conversion circuit to generate an AC magnetic field; and a control circuit Stu that controls the amount of magnetic flux generated from the feeding coil. The control circuit Stu calculates a separation distance between the feeding and receiving coils in their opposing direction from the circuit characteristic value of the wireless power transmitting device in a state where the amount of magnetic flux generated from the feeding coil is controlled so as to be constant.

Methods and an apparatus are presented. A method of monitoring utilities is presented. A rechargeable battery of an unmanned aerial vehicle is charged using an electromagnetic field of a high voltage power line within a right-of-way and a recharging system of the unmanned aerial vehicle. The unmanned aerial vehicle is flown a specified distance from the high voltage power line during the charging. Utilities are inspected using a sensor of the unmanned aerial vehicle while flying the unmanned aerial vehicle the specified distance from the high voltage power line.

Provided is a collected current monitoring device enabling an analysis of collected current in each current collector while allowing a reduced equipment cost. The collected current monitoring device of the present disclosure is installed in a railroad vehicle including current collectors, main transformers, and main converters. The collected current monitoring device includes: a supply current sensor configured to measure a current supplied to a freely-selected one of the main transformers, at least one current-sensor-between-current-collectors disposed in each communication path connecting two adjacent ones of the current collectors and configured to measure a current flowing in the communication path, and a processor configured to calculate a current flowing in each of the current collectors based on the current measured by the supply current sensor and the current measured by the at least one current-sensor-between-current-collectors, and on a distribution ratio of the currents supplied to the main transformers.

Provided is a collected current monitoring device enabling an analysis of collected current in each current collector while allowing a reduced equipment cost. The collected current monitoring device of the present disclosure is installed in a railroad vehicle including current collectors, main transformers, and main converters. The collected current monitoring device includes: a supply current sensor configured to measure a current supplied to a freely-selected one of the main transformers, at least one current-sensor-between-current-collectors disposed in each communication path connecting two adjacent ones of the current collectors and configured to measure a current flowing in the communication path, and a processor configured to calculate a current flowing in each of the current collectors based on the current measured by the supply current sensor and the current measured by the at least one current-sensor-between-current-collectors, and on a distribution ratio of the currents supplied to the main transformers.

A dynamic inductive wireless power transmitter (DIPT) system is disclosed. In embodiments, a DIPT system includes an AC-to-DC power converter configured to receive three-phase power from an AC utility source. The DIPT system further includes a trunk cable electrically connected to the AC-to-DC power converter and multiple power transmitter modules electrically connected to the trunk cable and connected to each other in series. Each of the multiple power transmitter modules are configured to transmit inductive wireless power over an air gap from the DIPT system to a vehicle containing a receiver coil. The DIPT system further includes a system controller configured to detect a vehicle containing a receiver coil, identify the vehicle containing a receiver coil, and confirm if the vehicle containing a receiver coil should receive inductive wireless power from the DIPT system.

A non-contact power supply system supplies electric power in a non-contact manner from a plurality of power transmission coils disposed on a road to a power receiving coil mounted on a vehicle traveling on the road. The non-contact power supply system includes a first estimation unit configured to estimate a future position of the vehicle, based on a speed of the vehicle, and a specifying unit configured to specify a power transmission coil that has to be in an activated state that is a state of being able to supply electric power to the power receiving coil, among the power transmission coils, based on the estimated future position.

A wireless power transmitting device transmits power by wireless to a wireless power receiving device through magnetic coupling between a feeding coil and a receiving coil and includes: a feeding circuit including a power conversion circuit that converts DC power into AC power of a drive frequency and a feeding coil unit including the feeding coil that receives the AC power supplied from the power conversion circuit to generate an AC magnetic field; and a control circuit Stu that controls the amount of magnetic flux generated from the feeding coil. The control circuit Stu calculates a separation distance between the feeding and receiving coils in their opposing direction from the circuit characteristic value of the wireless power transmitting device in a state where the amount of magnetic flux generated from the feeding coil is controlled so as to be constant.

Contactless power supply device of the present invention includes: contactless power supply section that supplies AC power in a contactless manner; contactless power receiving section that receives the AC power in a contactless manner; first DC transformer circuit that transforms, to DC load voltage, DC reception-power voltage obtained from the contactless power receiving section and supplies the DC load voltage to first electric load, and that has a reverse transfer function of transferring regenerative power generated by the first electric load in a reverse direction; and second DC transformer circuit that transforms the DC reception-power voltage to DC load voltage and supplies the DC load voltage to second electric load. Accordingly, the generated regenerative power is allocated and made available to the other electric load, and a power storage section is not necessary, which suppresses an increase in the weight and size of the power-receiving-side device.

A power reception coil is a circular coil having a hollow portion formed in a center portion of the power reception coil in a radial direction. The power reception coil, a resonant capacitor, and a magnetic member are arranged in a power reception coil unit forming a contactless power reception device. The power reception coil unit is attached to a member element serving as a frame member of a vehicle body. A hollow portion corresponding region which is a portion of the power reception coil unit corresponding to the hollow portion of the power reception coil is in contact with the member element.