Multifunctional Self-charging Structures for Energy Harvesting in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents the investigation of a novel concept involving the combination of piezoelectric and new thin-film battery technology to form multifunctional self-charging, load-bearing energy harvesting devices. The proposed self-charging structures contain both power generation and energy storage capabilities in a multilayered, composite platform consisting of active piezoceramic layers for scavenging energy, thin-film battery layers for storing scavenged energy, and a central metallic substrate layer. Such multifunctional devices can find use in applications where mass loading is critical. An application of interest involves multifunctional energy harvesting in small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Several aspects of the design, modeling, fabrication, and evaluation of self-charging structures are reviewed.