Award Data

The goal of this Phase I SBIR proposal is to design and build energy harvesting wireless sensing systems suitable for use aboard Navy Helicopters. The program will begin with a survey of typical vibration data obtained during flight testing; these data will then be used to optimize our existing vibration energy harvesting wireless sensors (VEWS) for use on Navy helicopters. These software progra ...

A major barrier to the widespread adoption of wireless sensors for structural health monitoring is the requirement to power the network of wireless nodes. Batteries have a limited lifespan, adding significant size, weight, and costs to the wireless sensor network,and may represent a long term environmental problem. Battery maintenance can be eliminated by harvesting energy from the environment. Fo ...

Structural monitoring of Navy aircraft is of critical importance as the fleet ages. One critical area includes the control surfaces, which are subject to intense, dynamic buffet loading which can lead to structural cracking. The highly transient nature of buffet loading makes it difficult to measure using conventional sensors. We propose to solve this problem by combining a network of time-synchro ...