CHIBA, Japan, Chiba University and Willo Technologies today signed a joint research agreement to study the behavior of wireless power systems within an enclosed three-dimensional space. The agreement was signed on September 9 at Chiba University’s Nishi-Chiba Campus by Professor Hiroo Sekiya of the Graduate School of Informatics and Harri Santamala, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Willo Technologies .
Most wireless charging today works essentially in two dimensions. A device has to sit on a pad or in a cradle and be aligned within a few millimeters. Willo is building something different: an enclosed space in which a device can draw power at any position and in any orientation, with no pad, no alignment, and no line of sight. Willo calls this a three-dimensional power zone .
A key engineering challenge in such a shared space is the variation in operating conditions. Devices enter and leave, move, and change how much power they draw, and each device can alter the electrical behavior of the overall system. Maintaining stable power delivery as these conditions change is essential for making the system operate reliably beyond controlled demonstrations.
Under the agreement, Professor Sekiya’s group at Chiba University will study how to maintain stable operation of devices within the enclosed space and evaluate how power delivery is affected as the number of devices drawing power changes, including conditions in which people are present in the space. The work is expected to run for 12 months beginning in September 2026 .
Willo chose Chiba University specifically for Professor Sekiya’s group. Sekiya has built his career on high-frequency switching-mode power conversion, including the class-E and class-EF circuit families that enable efficient power delivery at megahertz frequencies. His group is one of the few in the world working extensively on load-independent wireless power transfer, in which output characteristics can be maintained as the load changes without relying on a feedback control loop. The group has also published extensively on numerical and machine-learning-based design methods for high-frequency power electronic systems in leading international journals.
Japan also produces a large share of the world’s precision equipment, sensors, and industrial robots—systems in which cables and connectors can impose significant constraints.
“My group has worked for years on keeping high-frequency power delivery stable as the load changes. Extending this concept from a single wireless power link to an entire enclosed space raises many questions that remain open and answering them requires experimental measurement and validation in addition to simulation. I am very pleased to be working with Willo on these challenges, and I expect the knowledge gained through this collaboration to be useful well beyond the development of a single product or company,” says Professor Sekiya.
CEO Santamala remarks, “ Professor Sekiya’s group has carried out leading research on maintaining stable wireless power delivery under changing load conditions. This is one of the key challenges in powering an entire space rather than a single device, and it is a major reason why we chose to collaborate with Chiba University. The results of this research will help us refine the design of the three-dimensional power zones we develop. We are also pleased that Dr. Yutaro Komiyama, one of our engineering team members, earned his Ph.D. under Professor Sekiya’s supervision before joining us. His experience bridges the research conducted at Chiba University with our engineering efforts at Willo Technologies, further strengthening the connection between the two organizations.”
About Chiba University
Chiba University boasts 11 faculties and 9 graduate schools on 5 campuses and a rich academic environment where students can acquire a broad-based interdisciplinary education as well as an advanced level of expertise. While respecting diversity in learning, Chiba University promotes innovative research through collaboration and researcher support programs, leading to the development of new fields of research, which will continue to make a wide range of social contributions both locally and internationally.
https://www.chiba-u.ac.jp/e/index.html
About Willo Technologies
Willo Technologies is a wireless power company based in Helsinki, Finland. The company, an Aalto University spin-off, is developing three-dimensional power zones: spaces in which devices draw power at any position and in any orientation, with no pad, no alignment and no line of sight. The company has raised 2.9 million euros. More at willo. tech