Design device, design method, and program

Abstract

The present invention provides a design device for designing, in an optical wireless power supply system provided with a transmission device and a reception device, a beam to be transmitted from the transmission device and a panel to receive the beam at the reception device. The design device comprises an input unit for inputting a required condition and a computation unit that performs, for each beam of a plurality of beams, a design process including reading out an evaluation result and a beam pattern for a certain beam from a database and determining a size of the panel and a cell disposition in the panel for the beam on the basis of the evaluation result and the beam pattern and selects a design result that satisfies the required condition from among design results for the plurality of beams.

Description

Design device, design method, and program

[0001] The present invention relates to optical wireless power supply technology.

[0002] Optical wireless power transfer technology uses, for example, a laser as an energy medium. Laser light (also called a laser beam or beam) is transmitted from the laser toward a target to be powered, and the target converts the laser light into electricity using a photoelectric conversion element such as a solar cell. Note that, here, the light source (light source element) that outputs the laser light is called a "laser." A "laser" may also be called a laser medium, a laser oscillator, or the like.

[0003] Ke Jin,Weiyang Zhou,"Wireless Laser Power Transmission: A Review of Recent Progress", IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER ELECTRONICS, VOL. 34, NO. 4, APRIL 2019 https: / / ieeexplore.ieee.org / stamp / stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=8404085&tag=1

[0004] Optical wireless power transfer technology is expected to be applied to a variety of targets, such as remote locations such as remote islands and drones in flight. However, with optical wireless power transfer technology, the optimal beam shape or system size (receiving panel size, etc.) varies depending on conditions such as the beam transmission distance and atmospheric turbulence.

[0005] To determine which system is best suited to each situation, preliminary testing must be carried out, which is time-consuming and costly.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and aims to provide a technique for designing an optical wireless power transfer system suited to various situations without conducting experiments.

[0007] According to the disclosed technology, there is provided a design device for an optical wireless power supply system having a transmitting device and a receiving device, which designs a beam transmitted from the transmitting device and designs a panel that receives the beam in the receiving device, the design device comprising: an input unit for inputting required conditions; and a calculation unit for reading out an evaluation result and beam pattern for a certain beam from a database, performing a design process for each beam among a plurality of beams to determine the size of the panel for the beam and the cell arrangement on the panel based on the evaluation result and the beam pattern, and selecting a design result that satisfies the required conditions from the design results for the plurality of beams.

[0008] According to the disclosed technology, it is possible to design an optical wireless power supply system suitable for various situations without conducting experiments.

[0009] FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of an optical wireless power supply system. FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining an example of an optical wireless power supply system. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining an example of a configuration of an optical wireless power supply system. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of a configuration of a transmitting device 100. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of a receiving device 200. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an example of a configuration of a panel. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of cell connection. FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an example of a configuration of a design device 300. FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining an example of data stored in a storage unit 340. FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the design device 300. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining panel aperture efficiency. FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining panel aperture efficiency. FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining an example of a panel divided into rectangles (cells). FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining an example of a combination of series connection and parallel connection. FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining an example of a hardware configuration of the design device 300.

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is merely an example, and the embodiment to which the present invention is applied is not limited to the following embodiment.

[0011] In the embodiments described below, it is assumed that a laser is used as the light source in the transmitting device, but using a laser as the light source is merely one example. The light source to which the technology according to the present invention can be applied is not limited to a specific type of light source. Any light source that can output light (electromagnetic waves from infrared to ultraviolet) may be used. Hereinafter, the entity that outputs light may be referred to as a "light source element" or "light source unit."

[0012] In the following, we will first describe in detail an example of a basic configuration of an optical wireless power supply system and the problems associated with the technology of this embodiment, and then we will describe the technology of this embodiment. Note that the content of the following description of the problems is not publicly known.

[0013] (Example of a basic optical wireless power transfer system configuration) Generally, the beam output from a laser is called a Gaussian beam, and the light intensity distribution in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis is a Gaussian distribution. In addition, to supply high-power electricity, it is expected that a multi-cell type equipped with multiple cells (photoelectric conversion elements) will be used as a photoelectric conversion unit (also called a panel) that converts received light into electricity.

[0014] An example of beam transmission and reception when a Gaussian beam is used will be described with reference to FIGS.

[0015] In the configuration shown in Figures 1 and 2, a laser 1, which is a light source element, and a photoelectric conversion unit 2 on the light receiving side are shown. For the laser 1, a surface 3 (light emitting surface) on the side from which the laser 1 outputs light is also shown. For the photoelectric conversion unit 2, a surface (light receiving surface) on the side from which the light is received is also shown. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the photoelectric conversion unit 2 (panel) has a plurality of cells arranged in a lattice pattern. Furthermore, in Figures 1 and 2, the beam output from surface 3 is input to the optical path, so surface 3 is described as "input." Furthermore, the output from the optical path becomes the input to the photoelectric conversion unit 2.

[0016] In the example shown in Fig. 1, the beam is contained within the panel on the receiving side. However, since the intensity distribution of the Gaussian beam is a Gaussian distribution, it is difficult to uniformly apply light to each cell that constitutes the photoelectric conversion unit 2, as shown in Fig. 1.

[0017] Furthermore, as shown in Figure 2, if a laser 1 that outputs laser light (beam) from a wider area is used in order to apply light as uniformly as possible to each cell, the base of the Gaussian beam will extend beyond the light-receiving surface of the photoelectric conversion unit 2, resulting in increased loss.

[0018] (Challenges) As mentioned above, optical wireless power transfer technology is expected to be applied to a variety of targets, including remote locations such as remote islands and drones in flight. However, with optical wireless power transfer technology, the optimal beam shape or system size (receiving panel size, etc.) varies depending on conditions such as the beam transmission distance and atmospheric turbulence.

[0019] In other words, even if an optical wireless power transfer system is designed for a certain application, if the application is used over a propagation distance different from that assumed in the design, the amount of beam expansion due to diffraction will change from the amount in the design, and the beam thickness will need to be changed from the designed thickness.

[0020] Furthermore, if an optical wireless power transfer system designed for a certain environment is used in a different environment or at a different time of day, the strength of atmospheric turbulence will change, causing the beam shape and beam width after propagation to also change, necessitating a redesign. Furthermore, the panel shape and cell connection required to achieve high conversion efficiency will also change depending on the beam shape, so the panel will also need to be redesigned.

[0021] In situations like the one above, to determine what system is best for each situation, preliminary verification such as experiments must be carried out, which is time-consuming and costly.

[0022] The configuration and operation of a system that solves the above-mentioned problems will be described in detail below.

[0023] (Configuration Example of System / Device) A configuration example of an optical wireless power supply system to be designed in this embodiment is shown in Fig. 3. As shown in Fig. 3, the optical wireless power supply system in this embodiment includes a transmitting device 100 and a receiving device 200.

[0024] In this embodiment, a design device 300 is used to perform design for optimizing the optical wireless power transfer system, as shown in Fig. 3. The details of the design process will be described later.

[0025] FIG. 4 shows an example configuration of the transmitting device 100. As shown in FIG. 4, the transmitting device 100 includes a light source unit 110 and a modulation unit 120. In this embodiment, the light source unit 110 includes one laser (light source element). The modulation unit 120 can shape a beam by modulating the phase or intensity of light, partially cutting the intensity of light, or superimposing light. For example, a diffractive optical element (DOE) or a spatial light modulator (SLM) can be used as the modulation unit 120.

[0026] Fig. 5 shows an example configuration of the receiving device 200. As shown in Fig. 5, the receiving device 200 includes a photoelectric conversion unit 210. The photoelectric conversion unit 210 (hereinafter referred to as a panel) has, for example, a configuration in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements (each photoelectric conversion element is referred to as a cell) are arranged in a grid pattern.

[0027] Figure 6 shows an example of the panel configuration when viewed from the front of the cell's light-receiving surface. In the example shown in Figure 6, each cell is the same size (same shape) and is arranged in a grid pattern. In Figure 6, each cell is numbered, such as (1) and (2).

[0028] Figure 7 shows an example of cell connections for the panel shown in Figure 6. In the example of Figure 7, all cells are connected in series. By connecting cells in series, it is possible to increase the voltage, reduce the current value, and reduce losses due to internal resistance. However, if there is a cell among the multiple cells that does not receive enough light, the current value of that cell will be small, which will become a bottleneck and limit the overall current value, making it difficult to obtain high power.

[0029] (Outline of Processing by Design Apparatus 300) In this embodiment, the design apparatus 300 uses simulation results to perform design for optimizing an optical wireless power transfer system (hereinafter referred to as a system).

[0030] Specifically, when the system requirements and transmission conditions are input to the design device 300, the design device 300 outputs optimal beam design results and panel design results.

[0031] The design device 300 can output, as a beam design result, information including at least one of the beam type, beam width, beam wavefront information, and information necessary for beam shaping. The design device 300 can output, as a panel design result, for example, the panel size, the size of the cells that make up the panel, and the cell layout. Note that the "cell layout" may include the size of each cell.

[0032] (Configuration Example of Design Apparatus 300) Fig. 8 shows a configuration example of the design apparatus 300. As shown in Fig. 8, the design apparatus 300 has an input unit 310, a calculation unit 320, an output unit 330, and a storage unit 340. The storage unit 340 may also be called a database. The storage unit 340 (database) may also be provided outside the design apparatus 300. An operation example of the design apparatus 300 having the above configuration will be described below.

[0033] (Regarding advance preparations) In this embodiment, a simulation is used to perform propagation calculations multiple times in advance for each of various beams (multiple beams with different beam types, beam widths on the transmitting side, and curvatures) under multiple transmission conditions (each transmission condition is a transmission distance, a disturbance condition, etc.), and the beam patterns (intensity distributions on the light-receiving surface) calculated multiple times are integrated (averaged) and the evaluation results of the beams are stored in the memory unit 340 of the design device 300.

[0034] More specifically, the above transmission conditions include, for example, the transmission distance [km], the atmospheric structure constant [1 / m ２／３ ], outer scale [km], and inner scale [mm].

[0035] Regarding the beam evaluation results in the above simulation, what is evaluated (i.e., the beam evaluation axis) in this embodiment is the gravity center deviation and the beam width, as follows:

[0036] Center of gravity deviation: This value indicates how much the center of gravity of the beam (the position of balance when the light intensity is considered as a weight) deviates. Multiple disturbance simulations are performed, and the average center of gravity deviation obtained for each run and the amount of variance between simulation trials are recorded.

[0037] Beam width: Diameter that contains 86% of the total power (in Gaussian, the intensity is 1 / e of the central intensity) ２ (The total width at which the disturbance is generated is the total width at which the disturbance is generated.) Simulate the disturbance multiple times and integrate each output beam pattern. Determine and record the beam width of the integrated beam pattern.

[0038] Regarding the center of gravity shift mentioned above, strictly speaking it is the amount of movement from the original center of the beam, but since the beam center is basically designed to be aligned with the center of the receiving panel, the center of gravity shift can be thought of as the length of the shift of the beam's center of gravity from the center of the receiving panel.

[0039] Fig. 9 shows an example of some of the simulation results stored in the storage unit 340. In the example shown in Fig. 9, the simulation results under certain transmission conditions for each type of beam are shown, including the center of gravity deviation (average value), center of gravity deviation (variance amount), beam width, and integrated beam pattern (beam intensity distribution on the light-receiving surface). Note that for convenience of illustration, the beam pattern does not accurately show the simulation results, but rather shows an image. Simulation results (beam evaluation results) such as those shown in Fig. 9 are stored in the storage unit 340 for each transmission condition.

[0040] (Example of Operation of Design Device 300) The operation of the design device 300 will be described below in accordance with the procedure of the flowchart shown in Fig. 10. Here, it is assumed that the above-mentioned advance preparations have already been completed. Also, it is assumed that multiple cells in the panel are connected in series.

[0041] <S1> In S1, the requirements, transmission conditions, and optimization criteria of the system to be designed are input from the input unit 310. Note that since the transmission conditions are also a type of requirement, the transmission conditions may be included in the requirements.

[0042] The transmission conditions are, for example, "transmission distance [km], atmospheric structure constant [1 / m ２／３ ], outer scale [km], and inner scale [mm].

[0043] The required conditions include, for example, a power condition and a cell condition. The power condition is, for example, "(1) transmission power [W], (2) panel aperture efficiency, received power [W], and generated voltage [V]."

[0044] The cell conditions are, for example, "heat resistance conditions [W / cm ２ ] and the voltage [V] that can be extracted from one cell. The optimization criteria are, for example, power, size, or stability.

[0045] Steps S2 to S6 described below are repeated for each type of beam.

[0046] <S2> In S2, the calculation unit 320 acquires the beam pattern and the evaluation result corresponding to the input transmission conditions from the storage unit 340.

[0047] <S3> In S3, the calculation unit 320 determines the panel size based on the acquired evaluation result so as to satisfy the panel aperture efficiency.

[0048] Specifically, the calculation unit 320 calculates an aperture size from the acquired beam pattern such that the panel aperture efficiency satisfies the panel aperture efficiency input as a required condition, and determines the panel size as the sum of the aperture size and the center of gravity shift amount (average value). The concept behind this calculation is explained below.

[0049] Panel aperture efficiency is the ratio of the beam energy that fits within the panel aperture to the total beam energy that reaches the receiving side (receiving device 200). Here, it is assumed that cells are arranged over the entire panel, so the panel aperture corresponds to the entire light-receiving surface of the panel. In other words, the panel size is equal to the aperture size.

[0050] The panel size may be any value that can indicate the size of the panel (the size of the light receiving surface). For example, if the panel is square, the panel size (= aperture size) can be expressed as the length of one side of the square. Also, if the panel is rectangular, the panel size (= aperture size) can be expressed as the lengths of the long and short sides of the rectangle. For convenience, the panel (aperture) will be assumed to be square below.

[0051] An example of the panel aperture efficiency will be described with reference to Figures 11 and 12. For example, if the aperture size is 40 cm for a beam with a beam width of 20 cm on the panel, the entire beam will fit within the aperture as shown in Figure 11, and the panel aperture efficiency will be 100%.

[0052] Furthermore, for example, when the aperture size is 20 cm for a beam with a beam width of 20 cm on the panel, the beam protrudes from the aperture as shown in FIG. 12, and the panel aperture efficiency falls below 100%.

[0053] For example, if the panel aperture efficiency under the required conditions is 100%, the calculation unit 320 calculates the aperture size that will accommodate the entire beam on the panel, and adds the center of gravity shift amount to that aperture size to calculate the panel size.

[0054] For example, if the aperture size that can accommodate the entire beam is a square with sides of 34 cm and the center of gravity shift is 3 cm, the panel size is set to 34 + 3 x 2 = 40 cm. This prevents the beam from going beyond the panel, regardless of the direction in which the center of gravity shifts, and maintains a panel aperture efficiency of 100%.

[0055] <S4> In S4, the calculation unit 320 determines the cell size. Specifically, the calculation unit 320 uses the power conditions to calculate the required number of cells (the number of cells connected in series) from "(power generation voltage) / (voltage per cell)," and determines the cell size of each cell that constitutes the panel so as to maximize the power that can be extracted from the panel.

[0056] Here, we assume that each cell is rectangular. In this case, the cell size can be expressed as the length of the long side and the length of the short side of the rectangle. A more specific calculation method is as follows:

[0057] When all cells are connected in series, the current value is constant for all cells, so it is necessary to make the amount of light incident on all cells as uniform as possible. Therefore, the calculation unit 320 calculates the amount of light incident on the entire panel from the beam pattern and divides this value by the number of cells required in series. This value becomes the amount of light that should be incident on each cell. Therefore, the calculation unit 320 divides the panel, on which the intensity distribution (beam pattern) is arranged, into rectangles so that the amount of light incident on each cell approaches this amount of light. Each divided rectangle is considered to be one cell. The lengths of the long and short sides of each rectangle become the cell size of each cell.

[0058] An example of a panel divided into rectangles (cells) is shown in Figure 13. As shown in Figure 13, the area of ​​the cells in areas where light is strong is small, and the area of ​​the cells in areas where light is weak (or areas where only part of the cell is illuminated) is large.

[0059] <S5> In S5, the calculation unit 320 calculates the power that can be extracted from the panel and the maximum heat quantity in the panel based on the cell design results (panel size, cell layout) in S3 and S4.

[0060] Specifically, the calculation unit 320 calculates the power that can be extracted from the panel by multiplying the power of the cell with the smallest amount of light among the cells by the number of cells in series. The "power of the cell with the smallest amount of light among the cells" is calculated by multiplying the "amount of light (optical power) of the cell by the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cell." For example, if the light intensity of the cell with the smallest amount of light is 10 W and the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cell is 25% (the efficiency of a typical solar cell), then the "power of the cell with the smallest amount of light among the cells" is 10 W x 0.25 = 2.5 W.

[0061] In addition, the calculation unit 320 calculates the maximum heat quantity as the heat quantity of the cell among the multiple cells that make up the panel, for which "((light quantity of the cell) - (light quantity of the cell with the smallest light quantity)) ÷ (cell area)" is the largest.

[0062] <S6, S9> In S6, the calculation unit 320 performs a required condition conformance determination. Specifically, the calculation unit 320 determines whether the panel and each cell designed in S3 and S4 satisfy both the required conditions of "received power" and "heat resistance condition." If either condition is not satisfied, the process proceeds to S9. If both conditions are satisfied, the process proceeds to S7.

[0063] For example, if the light intensity of a certain cell becomes small, the overall current becomes small, and the received power of the entire panel becomes low. Also, if the light intensity of a certain cell becomes large compared to other cells, the heat generation of that cell becomes large. If either or both of the "received power" and "heat resistance conditions" are not satisfied due to these circumstances, proceed to S9. In S9, the current beam is deleted from the candidates.

[0064] <S7> Suppose that steps S2 to S6 have been completed for all beams. At this point, one or more beams that satisfy the conditions of S6 and the design results are stored in the storage unit 340.

[0065] In S7, the calculation unit 320 executes a determination based on the optimization criteria, specifically as follows.

[0066] If the optimization criterion is power, the calculation unit 320 selects the beam with the maximum extractable power among all beams.

[0067] If the optimization criterion is size, the calculation unit 320 selects the beam with the largest system size (eg, panel size) among all beams.

[0068] If the optimization criterion is stability, the calculation unit 320 selects the beam with the smallest center of gravity deviation (amount of dispersion) from among all beams.

[0069] Regarding the system size mentioned above, if the criterion is the size of the receiver, the "system size" is the panel size. If there is a request to reduce the size of the transmitter, the size of the transmitter, i.e., the beam width of the transmitter, is also set as a requirement, and a beam with as small a transmission beam width as possible is selected.

[0070] <S8> In S8, the calculation unit 320 outputs the beam selected in S7 and the design result for that beam as an optimal design result.

[0071] This concludes the description of the flow. In the flow of Figure 10, the design was performed assuming that all cells in the panel are connected in series, but this limitation is not assumed. For example, as shown in Figure 14, a cell design that combines series and parallel connections can also be realized by using existing machine learning and optimization techniques.

[0072] (Example of Hardware Configuration of Design Apparatus 300) The design apparatus 300 described in this embodiment can be realized, for example, by causing a computer to execute a program. This computer may be a physical computer or a virtual machine on the cloud.

[0073] That is, the device can be realized by executing a program corresponding to the processing performed by the device using hardware resources such as a CPU and memory built into a computer. The program can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium (such as a portable memory) and stored or distributed. The program can also be provided via a network such as the Internet or email.

[0074] Fig. 15 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the computer. The computer in Fig. 15 includes a drive device 1000, an auxiliary storage device 1002, a memory device 1003, a CPU 1004, an interface device 1005, a display device 1006, an input device 1007, an output device 1008, and the like, all of which are interconnected by a bus BS. The computer may further include a GPU.

[0075] The program that realizes the processing on the computer is provided by a recording medium 1001, such as a CD-ROM or a memory card. When the recording medium 1001 storing the program is set in the drive device 1000, the program is installed from the recording medium 1001 to the auxiliary storage device 1002 via the drive device 1000. However, the program does not necessarily have to be installed from the recording medium 1001, but may be downloaded from another computer via a network. The auxiliary storage device 1002 stores the installed program as well as necessary files, data, etc.

[0076] The memory device 1003 reads and stores the program from the auxiliary storage device 1002 when an instruction to start the program is received. The CPU 1004 realizes functions related to the design device 300 in accordance with the program stored in the memory device 1003. The interface device 1005 is used as an interface for connecting to a network, etc. The display device 1006 displays a GUI (Graphical User Interface) or the like according to the program. The input device 1007 is composed of a keyboard, mouse, buttons, a touch panel, etc., and is used to input various operation instructions. The output device 1008 outputs the results of calculations.

[0077] (Summary of the embodiment) As described above, in the present embodiment, by evaluating the beam in advance using the indexes of the center of gravity deviation and the beam width, it is possible to quantitatively evaluate the requirements for optical wireless power transfer. Furthermore, it is possible to select an optimal system according to the requirements. By obtaining the propagation results of various beams through simulation and optimizing the system using the technology according to the present embodiment, it is possible to design without the effort and cost of experiments.

[0078] (Effects of the Technology According to the Embodiment) By using the technology according to the embodiment, it is possible to optimize system designs according to various optical wireless power supply situations without conducting experiments, thereby achieving cost reductions.

[0079] The following additional notes are provided regarding the above-described embodiments.

[0080] <Additional Notes> (Additional Item 1) A design device in an optical wireless power transfer system including a transmitting device and a receiving device, which designs a beam transmitted from the transmitting device and designs a panel in the receiving device that receives the beam, comprising: a memory; and at least one processor connected to the memory, wherein the processor inputs required conditions, reads out an evaluation result and a beam pattern for a certain beam from a database, performs a design process for each beam among a plurality of beams to determine the size of the panel for the beam and a cell layout on the panel based on the evaluation result and the beam pattern, and selects a design result that satisfies the required conditions from the design results for the plurality of beams. (Additional Item 2) The design device according to Additional Item 1, wherein the processor determines the size of the panel based on the beam pattern so as to satisfy the panel aperture efficiency under the required conditions. (Additional Item 3) The design device according to Additional Item 1 or 2, wherein the processor determines the cell layout so as to maximize the power that can be extracted from the panel. (Supplementary Item 4) The design device according to any one of Supplementary Items 1 to 3, wherein, when a plurality of cells constituting the panel are connected in series, the processor determines the cell arrangement based on the beam pattern so that the amount of light incident on each cell is uniform among the plurality of cells. (Supplementary Item 5) The design device according to any one of Supplementary Items 1 to 4, wherein the processor selects one design result from one or more design results that satisfy the required conditions in accordance with an optimization criterion. (Supplementary Item 6) The design device according to Supplementary Item 5, wherein the optimization criterion is power, size, or stability.(Supplementary Item 7) In an optical wireless power supply system including a transmitting device and a receiving device, a design method executed by a design device that designs a beam transmitted from the transmitting device and designs a panel that receives the beam in the receiving device, the design method comprising: an input step of inputting required conditions, and a calculation step of reading out an evaluation result and a beam pattern for a certain beam from a database, performing a design process for each of a plurality of beams that determines the size of the panel for the beam and a cell layout on the panel based on the evaluation result and the beam pattern, and selecting a design result that satisfies the required conditions from the design results for the plurality of beams. (Supplementary Item 8) A non-transitory storage medium that stores a program for making a computer function as each unit in the design device described in any one of Supplementary Items 1 to 6.

[0081] Although the present embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such a specific embodiment, and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims.

[0082] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 Transmitting device 110 Light source unit 120 Modulation unit 200 Receiving device 210 Photoelectric conversion unit 300 Design device 310 Input unit 320 Calculation unit 330 Output unit 340 Storage unit 1000 Drive device 1001 Recording medium 1002 Auxiliary storage device 1003 Memory device 1004 CPU 1005 Interface device 1006 Display device 1007 Input device 1008 Output device

Claims

1. A design device in an optical wireless power supply system having a transmitting device and a receiving device, which designs a beam transmitted from the transmitting device and designs a panel that receives the beam in the receiving device, comprising: an input unit for inputting required conditions; and a calculation unit for reading out an evaluation result and beam pattern for a certain beam from a database, performing a design process for each beam of multiple beams to determine the size of the panel for the beam and the cell arrangement in the panel based on the evaluation result and the beam pattern, and selecting a design result that satisfies the required conditions from the design results for the multiple beams.

2. The design device according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit determines the size of the panel based on the beam pattern so as to satisfy the panel aperture efficiency under the required conditions.

3. The design device according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit determines the cell layout so as to maximize the power that can be extracted from the panel.

4. The design device according to claim 1, wherein when the multiple cells constituting the panel are connected in series, the calculation unit determines the cell arrangement based on the beam pattern so that the amount of light incident on each cell is uniform among the multiple cells.

5. The design device according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit selects one design result from one or more design results that satisfy the required conditions in accordance with an optimization criterion.

6. The design apparatus of claim 5, wherein the optimization criteria is power, size, or stability.

7. A design method in an optical wireless power supply system having a transmitting device and a receiving device, executed by a design device which designs a beam transmitted from the transmitting device and a panel which receives the beam in the receiving device, comprising: an input step of inputting required conditions; and a calculation step of reading out an evaluation result and a beam pattern for a certain beam from a database, performing a design process for each of a plurality of beams which determines the size of the panel for the beam and the cell arrangement in the panel based on the evaluation result and the beam pattern, and selecting a design result which satisfies the required conditions from the design results for the plurality of beams.

8. A program for causing a computer to function as each unit in the design device according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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