Proposed Piezoelectric Energy Harvesting in Mobile Robotic Devices

Mobile robots are being utilized increasingly in many applications, which include the exploration of relatively unknown environments including aerial, undersea, volcanic or even alien environments such as the plateaus and deserts of Mars where the Curiosity or Rover robot and others continue to explore. Due to their mobile nature these robots present us with many problems in the area of energy conservation. Mobile robots require more efficient energy saving techniques, due to their inherent self-sustained and self-constrained energy systems. The article is intended to inspire research among the power electronics community on the possibilities of new restorative energy techniques, including the small changes to infrastructure required to enable utilization of these methods. The restorative energy device, described herein, denotes a device that harvests collectable power from the general motion, weight and inclinations of the machine in both factory and remote locations.