Adaptive vibration energy harvesting

By scavenging energy from their local environment, portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, radios and wireless sensors can achieve greater run-times with potentially lower weight. Vibration energy harvesting is one such approach where energy from parasitic vibrations can be converted into electrical energy, through the use of piezoelectric and electromagnetic transducers. Parasitic vibrations come from a range of sources such as wind, seismic forces and traffic. Existing approaches to vibration energy harvesting typically utilise a rectifier circuit, which is tuned to the resonant frequency of the harvesting structure and the dominant frequency of vibration. \lve have developed a novel approach to vibration energy harvesting, including adapt ion to non-periodic vibrations so as to extract the maximum amount of vibration energy available. Experimental results of an experimental apparatus using off-the-shelf transducer (i.e. speaker coil) show mechanical vibration to electrical energy conversion efficiencies of 27 - 34%. However, simulations of a more electro-mechanical efficient and lightly damped transducer show conversion efficiencies in excess of 80%