Energy Harvesting System

TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Air Platform
OBJECTIVE: Research and develop an on-board, aircraft energy harvesting system.
DESCRIPTION: Current methods for installing instrumentation systems on flight-test aircraft may involve significant modification and aircraft down-time, requiring long distances of power and signal cabling along with a multitude of electrical connections and terminations. Ongoing efforts to develop wireless sensor networks will eliminate long home-run signal cables from numerous aircraft sensors to a central data acquisition unit; however, the design of these wireless sensor networks currently rely on aircraft power, which would notionally come from various locations throughout the aircraft. The purpose of energy harvesting in wireless sensor networks is to minimize down-time during the modification process by eliminating power cable routing from available sources to each wireless sensor network (node) during installation.

Any solutions must have the following:
1. Phase I must provide excitation power within a range of 25-210 mW to a single sensor for 4 hours continuously, given the following assumptions:
a. 5VDC excitation voltage.
b. 120Ω -1kΩ load.
2. Phase II must provide system supply power within a 150-200W to a single wireless sensor network (node) for 4 hours continuously, given the following assumptions:
a. 28VDC supply voltage.
b. Multiple node components, i.e. data recorder, data recorder distribution box, timing unit, wireless transceiver, etc.
3. Capable of harvesting and providing necessary power under all ambient lighting conditions.
4. Recharge on-board electrical storage devices within wireless sensor networks.

No software, hardware, test equipment or tools will be provided.
PHASE I: 1) Research should focus on understanding the requirements, development of hardware and software solutions that use innovative, leading edge technologies. Deliverables includes: 1) Technical report supporting choice of technical solution to include configuration management plans, life cycle support plans, and cyber security plans; 2) A multimedia presentation describing the choice of technical solution; 3) Developmental demonstration of feasibility. Phase I should demonstrate the capability to provide excitation voltage to a single aircraft instrumentation sensor as described in (1) of the description above.
PHASE II: 1) Phase II should also see the development of the system architecture based on the solution documented in Phase I. Research should be focused on developing the approved solution to meet all requirements listed and determined during Phase I. Phase II should demonstrate, through prototyping, the capability to prover supply power to a single wireless sensor network (node) as described in (2) of the description above.
PHASE III: Military Application: Energy harvesting system that provides a remote power source for wireless sensor network nodes.

Commercial Application: Green solutions will reduce the carbon footprint and be ecologically friendly.
REFERENCES: 1. Samson, D.; Energy Harvesting for Autonomous Wireless Sensor Nodes in Aircraft. Procedia Engineering, Sept 2010; 2. Seah, W.; Wireless Sensor Networks Powered by Ambient Energy Harvesting (WSN-HEAP) – Survey and Challenges. Institute for Infocomm Research, May 2009KEYWORDS: Energy Harvesting System, Instrumentation System, System Prototype, Wireless Sensor Network