November 14, 2022
A successful trial could pave the way for seamless and convenient charging of e-scooters, replacing a time-consuming and resource-intensive process with a truly next-generation mobility experience.
OUR SERVICES
Wireless power solutions for three primary applications.
We’re currently partnering with clients to banish battery swaps, simplify home charging for e-bikes and e-scooters, and power autonomous industrial and delivery solutions.
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Autonomous Systems
Bumblebee's lightweight, high tolerance-to-misalignment wireless charging solution is a key enabler for autonomy for aerial drones, factory robotics, or home delivery systems.
e-Mobility
Bumblebee's USPs enable a single interoperable ground-based charging pad for kick-scooters, ride-on scooters, and e-bikes.
Electric Cars
Bumblebee is developing high power solutions which enable wireless electric car charging without the need for expensive precision parking aids.
Why Choose Us
Unrivalled wireless charging performance
Bumblebee outperforms competing wireless charging standards on all key metrics.
Magnetics
Bumblebee's thin, lightweight magnetics can be readily integrated in any vehicle or product.
Power
Bumblebee's USPs apply across all power levels — low, mid, and high. Current solutions range from 50 W to 7 kW.
Air-gap
With 3X the air-gap and 3X the tolerance to misalignment, precise parking, landing or docking is not required.
Interoperability
Our ground-based charging pad powers kick-scooters, ride-on scooters and e-bikes.
Magnetics
Bumblebee’s high frequency wireless charging uses a thinner, lower cost and lighter magnetic link with minimal shielding. As such the receive unit can be readily integrated into any battery-powered vehicle or device. This includes e-bikes, aerial drones and e-scooters where weight, size and power constraints prevent the existing wireless standards from delivering a practical charging solution.
Similarly, Bumblebee’s thin charging pads can be deployed without significant changes to existing infrastructure — for instance, as ground-based mats for electric vehicle charging.
Power
Bumblebee has showcased technology operating from 20 W all the way up to 7 kW. Gallium Nitride and Silicon Carbide devices are used in conjunction with new resonant circuit designs to deliver efficient power transfer at high frequencies and high power levels. Bumblebee’s IP can be applied across all power levels to deliver reduced weight and large air-gap solutions. Crucially, Bumblebee’s technology delivers in those mid-power applications such as e-scooters and aerial drones, where the existing solutions are either too low power or too heavy.
Air-gap
Using high frequencies to increase the induced voltage, Bumblebee achieves efficient power transfer over large air-gaps and misalignments. The ratio of air-gap and misalignment to transmit coil size is at least 3 times that achieved by the existing Qi or SAE standards. Our patented power electronics smoothly handle position and air-gap variations with new circuit solutions that maintain high efficiency over large changes in reflected load.
Interoperability
Bumblebee’s versatile ground-based charging pad is designed to charge a diverse array of devices or vehicles using the same pad. The pad generates a constant magnetic field, allowing the device(s) or vehicle(s) being charged to dictate the power level or charging speed. The charging pad intrinsically adjusts the power throughput accordingly. Bumblebee’s proprietary IP guarantees that fluctuations in power throughput does not detune the system.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Got questions? Get answers.
Do contact us if you have any further questions or require more details.
We're currently working with customers to eliminate battery-swapping in electric micro-mobility hire schemes, provide convenient home charging for e-bikes and e-scooters, and to enable autonomy in industrial and delivery operations. We're also developing a high-power wireless charging solution for electric vehicles.
This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg — contact us to find out if we can help with your use case.
Bumblebee is flexible in the way we work with customers, tailoring our design to fit the application needs. We can provide retrofit solutions for existing products as well as working closely with customers to integrate our wireless charging solution at the product design stage. We are also happy to work with customers to provide a proof-of-concept demonstrator to showcase the capabilities of our technology in their application.
Bumblebee closed its £750k seed round in November 2021 and will shortly be engaging investors for a series A round. Please contact us if you are keen to invest.
Bumblebee mid-power electric micro-mobility and aerial drone charging technology is at TRL 6. The technology has been successfully integrated into an electric kick scooter, and an electric ride-on scooter, and a DJI drone. Our 100 W wireless charging pad for drones has been demonstrated in action on the back of an Unmanned Surface Vehicle at the Thales Maritime Autonomy Centre at Turnchapel Wharf in Plymouth. Bumblebee's seed investment will take us to TRL 9 within a 6-9 month period. We will be running extensive field trials in the middle of this year.
In general wireless charging can charge at a similar speed as cable charging with a similar efficiency. For instance, Bumblebee’s wireless charging solution for the Govecs scooter matches the 600 W charge rate of the provided off-board plug-in charger and achieves around 85% efficiency.
Bumblebee wireless charging systems meet the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines for human exposure to magnetic fields. Simulations for our 600 W scooter charging system show that the specific absorption rate (SAR) for a person lying on the floor only 5 cm away from the charging pad is less than one tenth the ICNIRP safety limit for general public exposure.
Bumblebee also employs various techniques for foreign and live object detection (FOD/LOD) if needed.
Bumblebee's technology uses commercial off-the-shelf electronics components along with standard manufacturing techniques, enabling competitive pricing that reduces with scale. Please contact us for pricing for your particular application.
Please get in touch with us!
In the news
November 30, 2021
Bumblebee Power has successfully concluded a £750,000 seed round from investors including the Imperial College Innovation Fund to develop lightweight, high frequency wireless charging technologies.
December 22, 2020
Voi partners with Imperial College spin-out, Bumblebee Power to enable wireless charging of micro-mobility vehicles. Read the press release.