Science ministry opens wireless power testbed in Daegu

The science ministry said Thursday it opened a wireless power transfer testbed at Kyungpook National University's Daegu campus, giving companies a place to verify technology for electric vehicles and robots under real-world conditions.

The Ministry of Science and ICT held an opening ceremony at 11 a.m. at the Daegu campus in Dalseong County, attended by about 100 people, including its radio policy bureau director, Daegu's AI innovation growth office head and the university president, along with industry, academic and research representatives. The ministry said the spread of physical AI — robots, cars and manufacturing equipment that act in the physical world rather than only in digital space — is raising the importance of supplying power to devices efficiently and stably without human intervention.

The testbed consists of an indoor test space that mimics factories and logistics facilities and an outdoor environment for testing wireless charging of cars and robots. It is equipped with power converters, transmitting and receiving pads, batteries and communication devices, so companies can test performance by swapping in or linking only their own components.

Daegu and Kyungpook National University were selected to run the project through a local government competition in 2024. The ministry has supplied the 85 kHz band for electric vehicle wireless charging in 2022, eased licensing burdens for EV chargers of up to 11 kW in 2023 and for industrial wireless chargers of up to 1 kW in 2025.

"We hope the opening of this testbed becomes a solid foundation for connecting companies' research and development results to actual products and businesses and for accelerating the application of wireless power transfer technology in industrial settings," the ministry said. "We will continue to provide the institutional and administrative support needed for the wireless power transfer industry to grow further."

Data accumulated during testing will be used to revise technical standards and regulations and to support domestic and international standardization.