scholarly journals C8.4 - Dual-DC/DC Strategy for Enhanced Efficiency in Solar Powered Energy Harvesting

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Viehweger ◽  
T. Pfeifer ◽  
T. Keutel ◽  
O. Kanoun
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Solar Powered

Passive Energy Harvesting From Human Activities

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwar Romero ◽  
Michael R. Neuman ◽  
Robert O. Warrington
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Energy Harvester ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Electrical Potential ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Planar Coil ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
The One ◽  
Electrical Power Output

Energy harvesting from environmental sources such as motion, light, and temperature changes, has been demonstrated with commercially viable products (such as human-powered flashlights, solar-powered calculators, and thermal-powered wristwatches). Vibration or motion is an attractive environmental energy source due to its abundance and availability. A new electromagnetic energy harvester presented here is found to be capable for scavenging energy from human motion. The electrical power output of an inertial energy scavenger is proportional to the acceleration-squared-to-frequency (ASTF) and the quality (Q) factor. Human motion is associated with large ASTF values and low Q factors while machine vibrations are usually related with the opposite. Thus, passive energy harvesting from human activities could generate as much power as the one available from machine harvesters. The limit for such inertial generator is estimated to be on the order of 1mW/cm3. This paper reviews the energy harvesting limits, the energy generation from human activities, and the development of a new oscillating electromagnetic generator. This energy harvester is built with a permanent magnet (PM) ring with multiple poles and a gear-shaped planar coil. The PM ring has attached an eccentric proof mass for converting external movement into oscillations or rotations, these oscillations induce an electrical potential on the planar coil. As much as 3.45μW of power have been generated with a prototype at a frequency of 2.7Hz on a laboratory shaker and 2.35μW had been obtained when positioned laterally on the hip while walking.

scholarly journals A Solar Altitude Angle Model for Efficient Solar Energy Predictions

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Herrería-Alonso ◽  
Andrés Suárez-González ◽  
Miguel Rodríguez-Pérez ◽  
Raúl F. Rodríguez-Rubio ◽  
Cándido López-García
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Prediction Models ◽  
Low Complexity ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Solar Altitude ◽  
Energy Prediction ◽  
Energy Demands ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Set Up

Sunlight is one of the most frequently used ambient energy sources for energy harvesting in wireless sensor networks. Although virtually unlimited, solar radiation experiences significant variations depending on the weather, the season, and the time of day, so solar-powered nodes commonly employ solar prediction models to effectively adapt their energy demands to harvesting dynamics. We present in this paper a novel energy prediction model that makes use of the altitude angle of the sun at different times of day to predict future solar energy availability. Unlike most of the state-of-the-art predictors that use past energy observations to make predictions, our model does not require one to maintain local energy harvesting patterns of past days. Performance evaluation shows that our scheme is able to provide accurate predictions for arbitrary forecasting horizons by performing just a few low complexity operations. Moreover, our proposal is extremely simple to set up since it does not require any particular tuning for each different scenario or location.

Self-Powered and Bio-Inspired Dynamic Systems: Research and Education

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farbod Khoshnoud ◽  
Ibrahim I. Esat ◽  
Richard H. C. Bonser ◽  
Clarence W. de Silva ◽  
Michael M. McKerns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Vibration Control ◽  
Dynamic Systems ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Educational Activity ◽  
Electromagnetic Actuators ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Self Powered ◽  
Solar Powered ◽  
Research And Education

Animals are products of nature and have evolved over millions of years to perform better in their activities. Engineering research and development can benefit greatly by looking into nature and finding engineering solutions by learning from animals’ evolution and biological systems. Another relevant factor in the present context is highlighted by the statement of the Nobel laureate Richard Smalley: “Energy is the single most important problem facing humanity today.” This paper focuses on how the research and education in the area of Dynamic Systems can be geared towards these two considerations. In particular, recent advances in self-powered dynamic systems and bio-inspired dynamic systems are highlighted. Self-powered dynamic systems benefit by capturing wasted energy in a dynamic system and converting it into useful energy in the mode of a regenerative system, possibly in conjunction with renewable energies. Examples of solar-powered vehicles, regenerative vibration control, and energy harvesting are presented in the paper. Particularly, development of solar-powered quadrotor, octocopter, and tricopter airships are presented, a self-powered vibration control of a mass-spring system using electromagnetic actuators/generators, and piezoelectric flutter energy harvesting using bi-stable material are discussed. As examples of bioinspired dynamic systems, flapping wing flying robots, vertical axis wind turbines inspired by fish schooling, propulsion inspired by jellyfish, and Psi Intelligent Control are given. In particular, various design and developments of bird-inspired and insect-inspired flapping wings with the piezoelectric and electromagnetic actuation mechanisms, a scaled vertical axis wind turbine farm consist of 4 turbines and the corresponding wind tunnel testing, jellyfish-inspired pulsing jet and experimenting the increase in efficiency of energy consumption, and a multi-agent/robotic based predictive control scheme inspired by Psi precognition (event or state not yet experienced). Examples of student projects and research carried out at Brunel University and the experimental rigs built (in all the mentioned areas) are discussed, as an integrated research and educational activity. For the analysis and understanding of the behavior of self-powered and bio-inspired systems, Optimal Uncertainty Quantification (OUQ) is used. OUQ establishes a unified analysis framework in obtaining optimized solutions of the dynamic systems responses, which takes into account uncertainties and incomplete information in the simulation of these systems.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document