Midea’s Transcend Competition Leads “Wireless Air Transmission” to Market Faster

On November 4th, Midea Group’s 2nd Technological Innovation Challenge (Transcend Competition) came to a successful conclusion. In the past 7 months, a number of teams from first-class universities and research institutes have made continuous attempts and fierce competition around the application and exploration of the cutting-edge technology of “wireless air transmission”, and 8 teams have stood on the stage of the finals. In the end, the “Kunming New Energy” team of Kunming University of Science and Technology won the championship, and won a science and technology bonus of 200,000 yuan and a set of home appliances from Midea.

Zhao Zhengming, a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics Technology of Tsinghua University, commented: “This competition is at the right time, and it is now a turning point for wireless air transmission technology to face the market. It is a strong catalyst for wireless air transmission technology to enter the market. Through Midea and other universities The participation of enterprises in promoting this cutting-edge technology to the market plays a leading role. At the same time, a large number of energetic and innovative new-generation talents emerged through the competition.” As one of the expert judges of this competition, Professor Zhao Zhengming not only spoke highly of the content of the competition and the contestants, but also believed that the turning point of the marketization of wireless power transmission will come with the conclusion of the competition.

Large-scale commercial use of wireless air transmission requires industry, academia and research

Hust, director of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Assistant to the Dean of the Central Research Institute of Midea Group, said, “Midea has carried out preliminary research on wireless air transmission. For commercial use, it is also necessary to mobilize the scientific research forces of universities and society to brainstorm ideas.”

It is understood that wireless air-to-air power transmission can get rid of the shackles of traditional wires and improve the freedom of power supply methods, thereby bringing about a revolution in product convenience. Therefore, it is considered as one of the most anticipated technologies of the 21st century. In addition to the field of home appliances, wireless air-to-air transmission technology has a wide range of applications, including smart homes, home electronic equipment, medical equipment, industrial robots, and smart transportation. . At present, low-power wireless air transmission has been used in mobile phones, electric toothbrushes, artificial hearts, pacemakers and other fields. Moreover, with the large-scale popularization of electric vehicles, high-power wireless power transmission will become a rigid demand. According to Zhu Chunbo, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, wireless power transmission was first used in mobile phones, and now it is trying to expand into various fields, among which home appliances are the field of international concern. From the technical level, the domestic and international levels are comparable, and everyone is in the stage of developing products that users can accept. This requires enterprises, universities and research institutes to give full play to their respective advantages, work together and understand each other.

This year’s Transcend competition requires participating teams to design a dynamic wireless power transmission system under given conditions, make their own transmitter and receiver systems, conduct wireless air-to-air power transmission for toy cars, and realize the vehicle’s lap run on the track to compete for the excellence of the scheme. . Since its launch in April this year, a total of 198 players from 60 teams have participated in the preliminary round. Among the contestants, 57% are masters and 18% are doctors. 18 teams entered the semi-finals, and 8 teams from Southeast University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Tongji University, Xi’an Jiaotong University, and China Electric Power Research Institute advanced to the finals.

At the final site, the judges scored the 8 teams’ toy cars’ lap time, power transmission efficiency, and scheme design, and finally awarded the first, second and third prizes. Among them, the Kunming University of Science and Technology team used the latest third-generation semiconductor gallium nitride devices to realize a wireless energy transmission system at MHz frequency, and improved the overall power transmission efficiency through systematic design, which was unanimously recognized by the judges. Won the highest score in the game and won the first prize. Li Siqi, the leader of the team from Kunming University of Science and Technology, said that by encouraging students to participate in this competition, it not only improved everyone’s systematic thinking and ability of scientific and technological innovation, but also made him deeply feel the social value of the industrialization of scientific and technological innovation achievements. A team has been established to start a business, and the direction is locked in the direction of wireless power transmission, and I hope to become a promoter of this technology industrialization track together with Midea.”

“The title of this Transcend competition is very innovative and unique, aiming at the application of the cutting-edge technology of wireless air transmission.” Sun Yue, a judge of this competition and a professor at Chongqing University, said that although the wireless air transmission technology is relatively mature at present, But it is still lacking in industrial application. In this competition, the dynamic wireless power supply competition of electric vehicles is difficult and profound. Moreover, the competition process has both introduction and on-site display, which is full of interest, realizing the perfect fit of content and form, and has played a good demonstration role for my country’s science and technology competition. “Every team has innovated, solved some problems and contributed to the application of technology. Although there are profound and shallow, they all contribute to the promotion and application of wireless air-to-air transmission technology.”

Infinite innovation “transcend” a more beautiful future

From the “artificial electronic senses” of the first Transcend competition in 2021 to the “wireless air power transmission” of the second, Midea’s focus is not on the industrialization of a single project, but on making more people pay attention to new technologies. Innovation and breakthrough.

Hust said that the topics selected for the two competitions are a long-term research direction, not just a project subject or a very near technical end point, but a direction that can be continuously researched. He believes that Midea’s holding the Transcend Competition is very valuable and meaningful. “Because the theme of the competition is a frontier direction that the industry is concerned about, it has high industrialization value. If the projects in the competition can be industrialized, it will greatly promote Midea’s products and industries. At the same time, the competition Being able to attract many universities to participate, on the one hand, will help Midea establish industry-university-research cooperation relationships with universities and research institutes. During the competition, we saw their latest scientific research and technological achievements, which laid a solid foundation for future cooperation. On the other hand, it is also Midea’s support for academic research work.”

In fact, the two competitions attracted many college teams and science and technology institutes to participate, and set off a wave of science and technology innovation. Especially this year, it has contributed a lot of highly creative technical solutions to the frontier field of wireless air transmission on a global scale. At the same time, in order to bring wireless power transmission into the public eye, the second Transcend Competition innovatively introduced the communication track. Each participating team presented the wireless air transmission technology and the preparation process to the audience in the form of video. The competition is based on multiple dimensions such as creativity, communication, marketing, resource integration, social networking, etc., based on the number of video broadcasts, likes, forwarding, and valid comments on the B station platform, and selects excellent communication agents. This is not only to promote the technological innovation of wireless air transmission, attract more people’s attention, but also provide a display stage for each team.

After the first Midea Transcend Competition, Midea Group maintained close contact with several teams and further carried out special cooperation to jointly promote the industrialization of technology. Hust introduced that the “electronic nose” in cooperation with Tsinghua University is progressing smoothly. By detecting the composition and concentration of burnt molecules, it can control the cooking effect and avoid potential safety hazards in use. It is expected that there will be several years of technological transformation. Such an attempt has increased Midea’s confidence in continuing to hold the event.

In addition, this Transcend Competition was also highly appraised and recognized by Hu Aiguo, a professor at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Auckland, New Zealand. As a top expert in the field of wireless power transmission, Hu Aiguo said that in addition to promoting the development of the industry, from a social perspective, it is a popular science promotion activity to let the society know more about the new wireless power transmission technology. At the same time, it is of great significance to students’ scientific research. Through the competition, let them understand the actual needs and constraints of the industry, and then carry out the next step of research, there will be new gains. “The combination of production, education and research is the best practice for the transformation of technology into productivity. Moreover, the continuous upgrading of technology after industrialization is the magic weapon for maintaining the competitiveness of enterprises.”