Two-magnet energy harvesting device for charging submersable sensors

Abstract

Monitoring subsea environment requires sophisticated tools such as Autonomous or Remote Underwater Vehicles, submersible sensors, and very skilled manpower. Power is vital to the success of subsea missions especially in deep-waters where visibility is poor and the travel time from the surface to the seabed and vice versa takes a relatively long time. Therefore, renewable energy sources have been tapped into as a solution to continuously provide power to underwater vehicles, actuators, and sensors used/located in deep waters, such as the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea. Previously, we designed a one-magnet energy harvester installed at the bottom of the sea to generate electricity for small sensors. In order to increase the electrical power production to provide power for a variety of devices, two kinds of energy harvesters (single-magnet and two-magnet) actuated via a buoy are proposed here. The produced voltage is fed to a signal conditioning rectifier to prep it for usage by sensors/actuators. The performance of the two proposed harvesters using the Genetic Algorithms generated parameter is presented for comparison. The simulation results showed that the electrical power generated by the two-magnet energy harvester using periodic wave motion is double that of the single-magnet energy harvester.