Smart-roads: piezoelectric transducers for energy harvesting and powering an embedded controller for smart roads

This project deals with extracting energy from moving vehicles by using the stress produced due to the mechanical pressure caused by the weight of the vehicles. Piezoelectric effect is the main principle used here.

A Piezoelectric transducer is a device that uses piezoelectric effect to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa. Piezoelectric materials have symmetry in their geometry and thus the net charge will be zero. When stress is applied onto these materials, charge separation takes place. This leads to the development of electric potential.

In this project we try to demonstrate that useful energy can be harvested from the piezoelectric transducers. We customize the arrangement so as to obtain maximum energy by distributing the stress due to weight of vehicles. And thus the generated energy can be used to power an embedded system like automatic traffic lights, advertising boards, etc. We try to calculate the theoretical energy produced by this setup and compare it with the measured experimental values. This can be extended to compare the energy due to stress produced by various moving things like cars, bikes or even a human walking!

Thus, we construct an experimental working system which can efficiently convert the mechanical energy from moving vehicles and test energy harvesting piezoelectric transducers.

Goals and deliverables:

Study piezoelectric transducers as an energy harvesting device. Test various energy harvesting piezoelectric transducers. Find suitable arrangement of transducers so as to distribute the stress to

obtain maximum energy. Compare the values of energy obtained by different moving masses. Store and use the harvested energy for embedded controller which brings the

concept of smart road.