A team of researchers from leading UK universities are exploring the possibility of longer-range wireless charging for robots and other digital devices, according to a report published Monday by the University of Leeds.

The 1-million-pound SWIFT project is the first collaborative UK effort to develop systems that can simultaneously transfer information and power across wireless networks, the report said. Researchers at Leeds, King's College London and Lancaster University are involved in the project.

A key aim of the project is to build working prototypes of wirelessly powered robots, which will be fabricated in a new facility at the University of Leeds.

Wireless power transfer dates back to Nikola Tesla, who experimentally demonstrated wireless energy transfer (WET) in the late 19th century. Nowadays, the technology for short-range wireless has matured and been adopted by the mobile phone industry.

However, the new project will focus on the possibility of longer-range wireless charging, exploiting recent advances in electronically-steered antennas that make it feasible to power robots safely over a significant distance using a microwave beam.

This is a very exciting opportunity to demonstrate that steerable microwave beams can safely transmit significant power over long distances, with advanced new techniques combining expertise in information theory, signal processing, wireless networking and microwave engineering, said Ian Robertson, a professor of the University of Leeds.

The SWIFT project will run for three years.