Design and implementation of an energy harvester for Low-Power devices from vibration of automobile engine

Abstract

The need for electrical power supply has spurred different technologies to cater the requisite. Energy harvesting from ambient vibration is a promising method to satisfy the indispensible power requirements. Piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEH) systems are perfectly used to convert mechanical source into a usable electrical form. Hence it requires a system to be developed to harvest the electrical power. In automobile industry, battery is the vital device for power supply and is charged using the fuel. This in turn would have an impact on fuel consumption of the automobile. An alternate for this can be the unused vibration from the engine mount to charge the battery. A practical model of the system is developed to verify the experimental results with an innovation on device design with a MAX 756-based regulatory circuit. The harvester feeds the appliances within the vehicle.