Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Systems Neil White, Stephen Beeby
Publisher: Artech House

When I first interviewed Liquid Robotics CEO Bill Vass, I was very impressed by the company's energy harvesting navigation system and its embedded data acquisition capabilities (see “Wave Glide Wave-Powered Marine Robot” at engineeringTV.com). Currently, the only option for underwater energy is batteries, which shortens the amount of time an underwater system can be powered. Having a source of renewable energy underwater opens up the possibility for long-term installations of autonomous systems, including systems for communication, environmental monitoring and networks of sensors. A team of scientists from University of Colorado Denver has developed a novel energy system that increases the amount of energy harvested from microbial fuel cells (MFCs) by more than 70 times. Joseph Elementary School in Lacolle, Quebec recently realized the benefits of energy harvesting when it retrofitted its classroom temperature controllers using a system developed by EnOcean and Regulvar Inc., a maker of HVAC products. Cardiff, Wales - November 14, 2011 - G24i Power Limited (G24i), the global leader in the indoor recycling of light to electricity, has further enhanced its energy harvesting applications by combining their Dye-Sensitised Cell (DSC) G24i is collaborating with over 40 Global OEMs to bring to market a new family of autonomous, self powering, energy efficient electronic devices such as remote controls, wireless keyboards, sensors, ePaper displays, mobile telephones and GPS systems. The objective of the Laboratory is to The Littoral High Bay will also have a variety of sediment tanks for testing sensors and energy harvesting devices. Application example of a vibrational energy harvester: IMEC's fully autonomous wireless temperature sensor powered by a vibrational energy harvester. Energy harvesting is the process by which energy is captured and stored; This term frequency refers to small autonomous devices – micro energy harvesting; A variety of sources exist for harvesting energy. LASR will provide specialized facilities to support highly innovative, multidisciplinary research in autonomous systems, including intelligent autonomy, sensor systems, power and energy systems, human-system interaction, networking and communications, and platforms. MEMS Micro-power harvesting from environmental vibration has been widely studied for fully autonomous wireless sensor networks due to its broad range of applications, including structural health mo University of Missouri System: University of Missouri-Columbia Researchers at the University of Missouri have designed, fabricated and tested a novel electrostatic MEMS scavenger with dual capacitive cavities for energy harvesting from environmental vibration. The autonomous system completed a record breaking 9000-mile journey across the Pacific using only the waves and solar panels to power itself. Piezoelements convert the kinetic energy from vibrations or shocks in the surrounding environment into electrical energy, and when equipped with the appropriate electronics they can create an autonomous system. "The idea is to be able to run applications autonomously, remotely, maybe without a battery forever," says Perzow, in a bit of hyperbole that's common in energy harvesting circles. The researchers recently demonstrated a method for harvesting solar power underwater at depths of 30 feet.