A review on foreign object detection for magnetic coupling-based electric vehicle wireless charging

Abstract

With the rapid development and widespread application of electric vehicles (EVs) around the world, the wireless power transfer (WPT) technology is also accelerating for commercial applications in EV wireless charging (EV-WPT) because of its high reliability, safety, and convenience, especially high suitability for the future self-driving scenario. Foreign object detection (FOD), mainly including metal object detection and living object detection, is required urgently and timely for the practical application of EV-WPT technology to ensure electromagnetic safety. In the last decade, especially in the past three years, many pieces of research on FOD have been reported. This article reviews FOD state-of-the-art technology for EV-WPT and compares the pros and cons of different approaches in terms of sensitivity, reliability, adaptability, complexity, and cost. Future challenges for research and development are also discussed to encourage commercialisation of EV-WPT technique.