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According to the report of the American Physicist Organization Network on August 31, for many years, scientists have been faced with the challenge of carrying a durable power supply in the study of insect-made miniature aerial vehicles (MAVs). Recently, scientists at the University of Michigan have taken a different path and used real insects directly to solve a problem in the power supply of aircraft.
Isetum Akan Akkadaka of the School of Power Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan and colleagues jointly developed an energy harvester that uses the vibration of the wings of the Green June Beetle to generate electricity. A piezoelectric device that makes each beetle output an overall electric power of 45 milliwatts. They predicted that if the beetle flight muscles were directly connected to the generator, the power generation could be increased by an order of magnitude. This also marks the first time that people have collected energy using live insects and non-resonant devices. Related papers were published in the recently published "Journal of Micromechanics and Micro Engineering."
Previous methods for collecting insect energy included collecting insect body heat using thermocouples or collecting vibrational energy using resonant magnetic devices. But the frequency of beetle wing vibrations varies greatly. The same beetle has different vibration frequencies under different conditions, so non-resonant devices can effectively collect the energy generated by various vibrations.
In the experiment, the researchers used a piezoelectric device to test the power generation capabilities of the beetle wing, chest, and wing sheath, respectively. The piezoelectric device can operate at a frequency of 85 Hz to 105 Hz, which is the frequency range of the shaking of the green flower beetle wings. Experiments have shown that the closer the energy harvester is to the bottom of the flight muscle (vibration source), the greater the mechanical pressure received and the greater the output power. After replacing the larger piezoelectric device, 115 milliwatts can be reached at the best position.
"This device can also be extended to similar insects and its weight is much lower than that of the resonant energy harvester. Without considering the frequency conversion of the vibration, the conditions of the solar thermal environment, can get a huge output power." Akadaka said, “Although significant progress has been made in the development of micro-aircraft, machine insects have advantages in aerodynamic performance, flight time, load capacity, and miniaturization of energy reserves. Our current technology is comparable to the evolution of nature for thousands of years. It's too simple."
Machine insects can be used as a micro-aircraft to perform tasks such as search and rescue, tracking, monitoring hazardous environments, and detecting explosives. Akadaka said: "We are currently working on a new technology that combines piezoelectric ceramics with traditional silicon manufacturing to improve the efficiency of micro-vibration energy harvesters." (Chang Lijun)
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