SBIR Phase I: Research on an energy harvesting system for the development of a self-sustainable, blue-tooth, low energy tracking and monitoring sensor for aircraft

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种新颖的、自我维持的、实时的资产跟踪技术，以满足航空业对效率和安全的需求。这项技术将提供自动化的安全和应急设备合规性和安全密封检查，大大减少审计所需的时间，同时提高其准确性，并避免因未检测到的故障或篡改安全设备而引起的潜在责任索赔。基于飞行中兼容的低功耗蓝牙（BLE）通信，可以使用紧凑的通信集线器或移动的设备在飞行期间和地面上连续监控设备。通过从飞行和滑行过程中存在的机械振动中收集能量来实现自我可持续性，而不需要耗时的电池更换周期，并避免了锂离子等危险电池化学物质的监管挑战。拟议的研究还将实现飞行中的监控应用，并自动执行新任务，例如确保遵守飞行中的安全带规定。拟议的系统将帮助客运航空公司在竞争激烈的市场中保持盈利，通过高效运营、缩短周转时间和降低维护费用来节省大量成本。小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在评估机械能量收集设计作为飞机上资产跟踪设备电源的技术可行性和有效性。为此，将测试用于机械能量收集的新技术：（1）具有可调谐振频率的新型堆叠压电装置，并通过同相振动的不同压电元件之间的叠加来增强输出，以及（2）机械振动放大器，其从振动中提取大振幅线性运动以增强机械运动的振幅。这两项新技术可以使第一个机械振动采集器足够紧凑，可以有效地用于航空业的资产跟踪，从而使能量采集模块小型化，以符合航空应用，并有效地采集极低频（10 Hz）主导的机舱振动。能量收集电路原型将在本项目范围内的实际部署条件下进行评估，并集成到BLE传感器原型中，以进一步评估其性能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop a novel, self-sustaining, real-time asset tracking technology that addresses the aviation industry’s need for efficiency and safety. This technology will provide automated safety and emergency equipment compliance and security seal checks, significantly reducing the time required for audits, while increasing their accuracy and avoiding potential liability claims from undetected failure or tampering with safety equipment. Based on in-flight compliant Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) communication, equipment can be monitored continuously, during flight and on the ground, using a compact communication hub or mobile devices. Self-sustainability is achieved by harvesting energy from mechanical vibrations present in-flight and during taxiing, without requiring time-consuming battery change cycles and avoiding regulatory challenges for hazardous battery chemistries such as lithium-ion. The proposed research will also enable in-flight monitoring applications and automate new tasks such as ensuring compliance with in-flight seatbelt regulations. The proposed system will help passenger airlines stay profitable in a highly competitive market, realizing significant cost-savings through efficient operations, reduced turnaround times, and lower maintenance overheads. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to evaluate a mechanical energy harvesting design regarding its technical feasibility and effectiveness as a power source for asset tracking devices onboard an aircraft. To this end, new technologies for mechanical energy harvesting will be tested: (1) a novel stacked piezoelectric device with tunable resonance frequencies and output enhanced by superposition among different piezo-elements vibrating in phase and (2) a mechanical vibration amplifier which extracts large-amplitude linear motions from vibrations to enhance the amplitude of mechanical movements. The two new technologies may enable the first mechanical vibration harvester which is compact enough to permit effective use in asset tracking in the aviation industry, resulting in an energy harvesting module miniaturized to comply with aviation applications and to efficiently harvest the extremely low frequencies (10 Hz) dominating cabin vibrations. The energy harvesting circuit prototype will be evaluated under realistic deployment conditions within the scope of this project and integrated in BLE-sensor prototypes to further evaluate its performance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.