Wireless Sensor Networks and Energy Harvesting for Energy Autonomous Smart Structures

In modern days, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are already broadly used in industrial applications. Sensors in combination with actuators placed on a structure enable different functions, like structural health monitoring (SHM) or active vibration control (AVC). In order to take all the advantages of a wireless system, each single member of the network should be able to get along without a wired power supply. To avoid battery powered WSNs, energy harvesting comes into focus. Depending on the environment, different technologies of harvesting vibration energy are considered. Within the framework of the Comet K2 Research Center “Symbiotic Mechatronics” of the Linz Center of Mechatronics (LCM), the topic of energy autonomous smart structures is investigated in a close cooperation with Fraunhofer LBF, German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Institute of Structural Lightweight Design of the Johannes Kepler University Linz. Based on a literature research, the feasibility and challenges of current WSN in the automotive and aeronautical domains are given. Additionally, various approaches in related articles overcoming the issue of energy autonomy are discussed. Concepts for use cases are presented, representing an energy autonomous wireless system for SHM on a transverse control arm of an automobile and the potential for AVC on a part of a fuselage structure of an aircraft. A concept for optimizing locations and parameters of sensors, actuators and energy harvesters for autonomous smart structures based on the LCM SyMSpace platform is presented