Toward a Self-Powered Vibration Sensor: The Signal Processing Strategy

Bruno Andò, Salvatore Baglio, Adi R. Bulsara and Vincenzo Marletta
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Bruno Andò: Deptartment of Electric Electronic and Information Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Salvatore Baglio: Deptartment of Electric Electronic and Information Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Adi R. Bulsara: Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, San Diego, CA 92152, USA
Vincenzo Marletta: Deptartment of Electric Electronic and Information Engineering (DIEEI), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: This paper, for the first time, investigates the possibility of exploiting a nonlinear bistable snap-through buckling structure employing piezoelectric transducers, to implement an autonomous sensor of mechanical vibrations, with an embedded energy harvesting functionality. The device is operated in the presence of noisy vibrations superimposed on a subthreshold deterministic (sinusoidal) input signal. While the capability of the device to harvest a significant amount of energy has been demonstrated in previous works, here, we focus on the signal processing methodology aimed to extract from the sensor output the information about the noise level (in terms of the standard deviation) and the root mean square amplitude of the deterministic component. The developed methodology, supported by experimental evidence, removes the contribution to the overall piezoelectric output voltage ascribable to the deterministic component using a thresholding and windowing algorithm. The contribution to the output voltage due to the noise can be used to unambiguously estimate the noise level. Moreover, an analytical model to estimate, from the measurement of the output voltage, the RMS amplitude of the deterministic input and the noise-related component is proposed.

Keywords: autonomous sensor; self-powered sensor; vibration sensor; nonlinear energy harvesting; Snap Through Buckling; wideband vibrations; piezoelectric conversion; characterization; signal processing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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