Vibration-based Energy Harvesting Circuit using Feed-forward　Control

摘要

This paper proposes an improved electromagnetic damper cum energy harvester (EMDEH), consisting of anelectromagnetic damper and a specially designed energy harvesting circuit (EHC). EMDEH is intended to suppressstructural vibrations by harvesting vibration energy of structures. A microcontroller unit (MCU) is applied in the EHC tocontrol the power switch by adjusting the duty cycle appropriately through a feed-forward control. Consequently, theEHC can achieve a controllable equivalent damping coefficient. The performance of the proposed EHC was validatedthrough a cyclic test on a universal testing machine. Although the total energy conversion is relatively low, a desirableconstant resistance feature could be achieved and an electrical power with hundreds of mWs could be charged into abattery. These experimental results revealed the benefit of using MCU in a feed-forward control system in EMDEH, andthe improved EMDEH could fulfill dual-functions, namely, simultaneous vibration control and energy harvesting, withan improved performance.