Based on the conjunction of contact electrification and electrostatic induction, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can harvest mechanical energy dispersed in our environment. With the characteristics of simple structure, light weight, broad material availability, low cost, and high efficiency even at low operation frequency, TENG can serve as a promising alternative strategy for meeting the needs of distributed energy for the internet of things and network. The major potential applications of TENG can be summarized as four fields containing micro/nano power sources, self-powered sensors, large-scale blue energy, and direct high-voltage power sources. In this paper, the fundamental physics, output performance enhancement, and applications of TENGs are reviewed to timely summarize the development of TENGs and provide a guideline for future research.

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Electrostatic breakdown is a common but generally negative physical phenomenon. Here, efficient conversion of mechanical energy to electric power is achieved by enhanced direct‐current triboelectric nanogenerator (DC‐TENG) based on contact electrification and electrostatic breakdown. By verifying the high temperature can not only improve the triboelectric charge density but also enhance electrostatic breakdown of air dielectric due to thermionic emission of electrons and avalanche breakdown effect. Meanwhile an appropriate low atmosphere pressure is another favorable factor to air breakdown in DC‐TENG. As a result, its output power density is improved by three orders of magnitude at 473 K and 300 Pa compared to that at 298 K and standard atmosphere pressure. These findings not only provide a new paradigm to design high‐performance TENG, but realize efficiently harvesting mechanical energy and thermal energy in one device by coupling the two kinds of physical effects.

In adaptive platooning strategies proposed in literature to handle uncertain and nonidentical uncertain vehicle dynamics (uncertain heterogeneous platoons) two aspects requiring proper design are neglected: bidirectional interaction among vehicles which might lead to loss of string stability, and engine saturation constraints which might lead to loss of cohesiveness. This work proposes a novel adaptive platooning strategy handling these two crucial aspects. Specifically, bidirectional interaction is handled by designing bidirectional reference dynamics with proven string stability properties, to which the uncertain heterogeneous platoon should homogenize; engine constraints are handled via a proposed a mechanism that makes such reference dynamics 'not too demanding', by properly saturating their action. The saturation action will allow all vehicles in the platoon to not hit their engine limits, preserving cohesiveness. Simulations are conducted to validate the theoretical analysis and show the effectiveness of the method in retaining cohesiveness of the platoon.

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