Twin Vibrational Power Generators and Extremum Seeking Control

Abstract

Vibration power generation using environmental vibrations to generate electricity has attracted attention as a sustainable independent power source such as wireless sensors placed under vibration. However, for efficient power generation, the resonant frequency of the vibration power generator must be automatically adjusted to the environmental vibrations. To achieve it, the author's group proposes installing a variable capacitance in the device and adjusting its capacitance by extremum seeking control. Therefore, this study proposes a generator configuration “twin generators” and a new extremum seeking control. Compared to the method employing conventional extremum seeking control, the proposed method increases power generation efficiency under damped vibration excitation, even when the vibration's amplitude and frequency change randomly. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.