Opportunistic Energy Harvesting for Submarine Wireless Sensors

KCF Technologies is proposing to leverage our leadership in power harvesting to develop magnetic field harvesting devices for submarine wireless sensors. The project responds to a Navy opportunity for reducing sensor maintenance and installation cost by providing enabling technology for eliminating hardwiring. The magnetic field generated by degaussing coils offers a unique opportunity to harvest power to operate wireless sensors that would otherwise be infeasible or require large batteries. In the proposed research work powering sensor nodes autonomously for acquiring and transmitting sensor measurements will be investigated. The primary harvester design objective will focus on harvesting and delivering a continuous power of 100 mW to a sensor load in a package size of two D-cell batteries. In Phase I, KCF will build and bench-test a magnetic field power harvester based on an analysis of the broadband magnetic energy available on a submarine. A through design study of an optimal magnetic harvester design and the associated power electronics for extracting and storing energy will be completed. An assessment of the harvester system feasibility will be based on design studies and prototype hardware performance.