CAREER: Control of Vibratory Energy Harvesting and Energy Constrained Systems

该学院早期职业发展（CAREER）研究计划将使用现代控制理论的概念来回答有关广泛的机电振动系统中能量的最佳转换和管理的基本问题，包括（i）浮动结构从海浪中收获公用事业规模的电力，（二）具有自供电驱动网络的民用结构，以在地震事件期间重新分配和消散振动能量，以及（iii）分布式压电换能器，以吸收用于无线感测应用的环境振动能量。 这些系统表现出一定的核心相似性，允许他们在一个统一的控制理论框架的分析。 它们都是分布式控制问题，其中收集的能量，结构变形和功率流必须在随机设置中平衡。 这项研究将表征的方式，在这种系统的电子产品中固有的非线性潮流约束限制其控制能力。 这种控制可行性的表征将反过来被用来创建一个广义的多目标最优控制合成这些系统，这是分析上易于处理，但通用性足以处理各种设计目标和情况下，可能会出现在不同的应用。 在这里进行的研究将包括线性和非线性控制器的设计方法，也将调查控制，电子和结构子系统的并发优化。 实验验证这些概念将进行，在上面列出的三个例子的背景下，与合作者在杜克和加州大学圣地亚哥分校。 这项研究的结果将对能源很重要的广泛控制应用产生影响，并且实验重点针对与当代社会密切相关的问题。 海浪能是一种宝贵的、尚未开发的可再生资源，其转换技术仍在发展之中。 这项研究将确定控制浮式波浪能转换器发电的方式，以优化其产生有用能量的能力。 与此同时，在自供电系统的地震风险降低和无线损坏检测地址的两个？大挑战？面对现代结构工程师。 最近在这些领域的大部分创新都集中在设备设计上，这项研究的结果将用于确定这些设备的最佳控制，以最大限度地提高它们从振动结构中提取有用能量的能力。 通过与杜克大学正在实施的新能源证书的协调，波能实验计划将成为机械，土木和电气工程以及环境学院的本科生之间多学科互动的焦点。 此外，该项目将利用杜克？杜克大学的推广计划不仅为杜克的学生提供研究机会，也为在大北卡罗来纳州地区其他地方学习的代表性不足的本科生提供研究机会。

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) research program will use concepts from modern control theory to answer fundamental questions regarding the optimal transduction and management of energy in a broad class of electromechanical vibratory systems, including (i) Floating structures to harvest utility-scale power from ocean waves, (ii) Civil structures with self-powered actuation networks to redistribute and dissipate vibration energy during seismic events, and (iii) Distributed piezoelectric transducers to scavenge ambient vibration energy for wireless sensing applications. These systems exhibit certain core similarities which permit their analysis in a unified control-theoretic framework. They are all distributed control problems in which harvested energy, structural deformation, and power flow must be balanced in a stochastic setting. This research will characterize the manner in which the nonlinear power flow constraints inherent in the electronics of such systems restrict their ability to be controlled. This characterization of control feasibility will in turn be used to create a generalized multi-objective optimal control synthesis for these systems, which is analytically tractable, yet versatile enough to handle the variety of design goals and circumstances which may arise in different applications. The research conducted here will encompass both linear and nonlinear controller design methods, and will also investigate the concurrent optimization of the control, electronic, and structural subsystems. Experimental validation these concepts will be conducted, in the context of the three examples listed above, in conjunction with collaborators at Duke and UCSD. Results from this research will have implications in a wide array of control applications where energy is important, and the experimental focus is aimed at problems of great relevance to contemporary society. Ocean wave energy is a valuable, untapped, renewable resource, and the technology for its conversion is still emerging. This research will determine the manner in which to control power generation from a floating wave energy converter, to optimize its ability to produce useful energy. Meanwhile, the research conducted in self-powered systems for seismic risk reduction and wireless damage detection address two of the ?grand challenges? facing modern structural engineers. Most of the recent innovation in these areas has focused on device design, and results from this research will be used to determine the optimal control of these devices to maximize their ability to extract useful energy from a vibrating structure. Through coordination with a new Energy Certificate being implemented at Duke, the wave energy experimental program will serve as the focal point for multidisciplinary interaction between undergraduate students in Mechanical, Civil, and Electrical Engineering, as well as the School of the Environment. Additionally, this project will leverage the success of Duke?s outreach programs to provide research opportunities not only to students at Duke, but also to undergraduates from underrepresented demographics, studying elsewhere in the greater North Carolina region.