Injured IDF Veteran & BGU Prof. Powering Autonomous Robots
Injured IDF Veteran & BGU Prof. Powering Autonomous Robots
June 12, 2025
Prof. Mor Peretz, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and CaPow Founder
The Times of Israel— For over a decade, Mor Peretz, injured IDF veteran-turned-professor of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), and two of his PhD students, toyed with the idea of building wireless charging technology that can power autonomous robots while they are on the move.
Academia would not have been the natural path for 45-year-old Peretz, who is the father of two boys, but an accident during his military service in the Israel Defense Forces left him permanently disabled without the use of one of his legs. A lengthy rehabilitation process prompted his family to encourage him to enroll at the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering in Beer-Sheva.
His ambition and academic performance propelled him to become the first graduate of the college to transition to a master’s degree at BGU and the first in his family to attain a university degree. He ultimately earned a doctorate and became a tenured professor by the age of 40.
Based on his applied research in energy delivery, Peretz, together with PhD graduates Alon Cervera and Eli Abramov, set out to develop the “secret sauce” for eliminating traditional energy bottlenecks.
After running simulations in the university lab, Peretz and research scientists Cervera and Abramov in 2018 co-founded CaPow, a comic book-sounding play on the words capacitive power. The team seeks to power robots as they operate in large warehouses and logistics centers such as those belonging to Amazon, and manufacturing facilities such as those in the automotive industry.
BGU alumnus Peretz said the startup was deliberately based in Beer-Sheva, tied to a vision of building tech excellence beyond Israel’s center. “We are very strong believers in the Negev,” said Peretz. “We grew up here and we would like to keep the roots here.”
CaPow’s flagship system is built on a capacitive wireless energy transfer model that places thin charging pad “stickers,” or modular floor transmitting antennas, along key high-traffic or strategic areas within a warehouse, and an internal power receiver installed in the autonomous robot. As the robot rolls over the sticker for a “sip of energy,” an onboard receiver converts energy from the ground pad into power until it reaches the next sticker.
Although technology solutions in recent years have helped cut charging time, they are still not fit to support a future of fully autonomous robotic systems, Peretz said, mainly because they still require robots to stop and reroute to charge. Every minute a robot parks to charge is another minute of workforce and revenue loss.
“Our solution also helps reduce dependency on lithium-ion batteries that power nearly every modern device, from smartphones to electric bikes, which are not only costly but can ignite dangerously,” said Peretz.
Read more on The Times of Israel>
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