Development of Magnetostrictive Harvester for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

Two Permendur-based harvesters with different stiffness have been modeled to convert unwanted vibration energy of UAV’s wing to useful electricity power. The Finite Element Method (FEM), ANSYS Software, was employed to numerically analyze the dynamic behavior of harvesters. Although Permendur element in harvester with lower stiffness underwent higher stress and strain, it generated lower power density. In other words, the higher excitation frequency of harvester, which was normally coincident with the natural frequency of the harvester, plays a more important role in harvested power. Analytical analysis promised the maximum power density of 14.32 μW/cm 3 with an external resistive load of 1.41 Ω in the stiff harvester.