Integrated Multi-Source Energy Harvesting Architecture for Autonomous UAV Operations

In this paper, an efficient hybrid energy harvesting interface is proposed to synergistically scavenge power from Radio Frequency (RF) and piezoelectric sources, and power up the low power sensors in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The Piezoelectric Harvester (PEH) uses piezoelectric sensors to detect the vibration from the motors of the drone and its output is rectified by a bridge rectifier circuit and stored in a capacitor. The RF harvester stores energy from the nearby base station using an antenna and it is rectified using Joe Tate's energy harvesting circuit. The total synergistically extracted power from both harvesters is more than the power obtained from each independently and the total energy is stored using a low power rechargeable battery. The system supplies 1-3.4 V output for powering up wireless sensors in the drone. This hybrid energy harvesting system is formulated as a convex optimization problem solvable using cvx tool in MATLAB to find the optimal parameters for power maximization.