Underwater wireless sensing systems are envisioned for stand-alone applications and as an addition to cabled observatory systems such as the OBSEA marine observatory. Therefore, this work presents a solution on how to generate power for marine wireless sensors using underwater motion energy. In this pare it is described a prototype based on a Bristol cylinder which can generate electrical voltage using piezoelectric bimorphs. Collecting water motion energy using piezoelectric energy harvesting is particularly difficult due to the mismatch between the low frequency of water kinetics and the high-frequency requirements of piezoelectric transducers. Therefore, to achieve frequency up-conversion we propose the use of the plucking technique applied to propose the use of the plucking technique applied to piezoelectric energy harvester. Experimental results show that the proposed energy harvester achieves a maximum power density of 350µW/cm3.

Peer Reviewed