Hermes-Wind Energy Harvesting Wireless System for Sensing AoA and Wind Speed

In this letter, we present Hermes - a novel, low-cost, wireless, batteryless, energy harvesting system for aerial vehicles for sensing wind speed and Angle of Attack (AoA) concurrently. Hermes comprises a set of piezoelectric films which flutter due to incoming wind and the characteristics of this aeroelastic flutter are utilized for determining the wind speed and AoA of the head-wind. Note that in our work we restrict the notion of flutter to high frequency oscillations due to incoming air flow. Hermes consists of five piezoelectric flags that are mounted on rigid clamps specifically placed at different angles. We designed Hermes to maximize the sensing performance and energy harvesting capability simultaneously, without compromising either accuracy or harvesting efficiency. Our current prototype can harvest the power of 440 mu W on average. Over a wide range AoA from -10 degrees to 30 degrees, the estimation of the wind speed is within 0.7 km/h error with 90% probability, and AoA error is within 1.2 degrees with 90% probability. Since Hermes necessitates no wires and batteries and is a low-cost sensor, it is well suited for a range of UAVs, gliders, and aircraft, which require flexible sensor placement and do not require new wiring, which is often complex in aircraft. Hermes is the first of its kind that exploits piezoelectric energy harvesting to simultaneously sense AoA and wind speed. This work is expected to open up new avenues for interdisciplinary research on embedded computing devices for aerospace applications.

Automated summary

Hermes is a novel, low-cost, wireless, batteryless energy harvesting system designed for sensing wind speed and Angle of Attack (AoA) simultaneously. Utilizing piezoelectric films that flutter due to incoming wind, Hermes is able to determine wind speed and AoA accurately. The system can harvest an average power of 440 micro Watts and has high accuracy in estimating wind speed and AoA over a wide range of angles.