Development of energy-harvesting system using deformation of magnetic elastomer

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a power generation method using the deformation of a magnetic elastomer for vibration energy harvesting. The magnetic flux lines in the structure of the magnetic elastomer could be markedly changed if the properly designed structure was expanded and contracted in a static magnetic field. We set a coil on the magnetic elastomer to generate electricity by capturing this change in magnetic flux flow. We fabricated a centimeter-scale device and demonstrated that it generated 10.5 mV of maximum voltage by 10 Hz vibration. We also simulated the change in the magnetic flux flow using finite element analysis, and compared the result with the experimental data. Furthermore, we evaluated the power generation of a miniaturized device.

Direct Observation of Gastropod's Locomotion for Soft Robot Application

“…In our previous works, we employed elastomer dispersed with magnetic particles. We developed energy harvesting systems [1][2][3], artificial cilia [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and worm-like robots [15,16] using the magnetic soft material. We evaluated the motion of worm-like crawling robots and found that the interface between the robot and the substrate affected so much for the locomotion ability of the robot [15].…”

Soft actuator with large volumetric change using vapor–liquid phase transition

“…One of the most important components of soft robotics is the soft actuator or artificial muscle, therefore, several models that use photosensitive dielectric polymers [13][14][15], or ionic liquid-based gels [16] have been developed. Another approach is to use physical-based actuators, such as the pneumatic type actuators (the most popular one) [13,14], which are controlled by air pressure through an air tube, or magnetic actuators, which are composed of magnetic powder and a flexible matrix, such as an elastomer or a gel [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. Furthermore, these physical actuators provide excellent responsiveness using external power sources.…”

Bio-mimic Motion of Elastic Material Dispersed with Hard-magnetic Particles

“…If we could apply biomimicry structures of these natural cilia, they would be useful engineering tools. We utilized magnetic elastomer [7][8][9] to mimic the motion of flexible structures in natural cilia [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”