The demand for sustainable energy generation and storage methods has become inevitable. As a result, numerous sectors are investing in research focused on energy harvesting (EH) techniques. In this context, a promising area involves integrating piezoelectric materials into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—an application that enables electrical energy generation from the kinetic energies produced during flight. This article aims to use polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric transducers coupled to an EH power management unit (LTC3588-1) to convert and store electrical energy generated by wind from the propellers and motor vibration. Methodologically, the motor and transducers are characterized, a model is developed using LTSpice^®, and experimental validation of the performance of this coupling is carried out for output voltages (V_out) of 1.8 V, 2.5 V, 3.3 V, and 3.6 V. With a motor rotation speed of 3975 rpm, the transducers generated a voltage amplitude of 17.3 V, enabling the capacitor coupled to the EH power management unit—adjusted to the highest V_out—to be charged in approximately 162 s. Thus, this study demonstrated the feasibility of using PVDF as a piezoelectric nanogenerator in UAVs, enabling onboard electronic circuits and sensors to be powered while reserving the battery solely for propulsion, thereby increasing flight autonomy.

Because of economic, population, and consumption patterns changes, the use of freshwater has increased significantly in the last 100 years. Notably, measurement is essential to encourage water conservation. Thus, the present study aims to evaluate the applicability of a thin-film resistive sensor (bend sensor) with different coatings for implementation in individualized water measurement systems. The motivation of this work is to propose a volumetric meter using flow control valves that ordinarily are already present in a building’s hydraulic installations. Methodologically, the following are presented: the system developed for the electromechanical and thermal characterization of the sensor, the sensor computational simulation performed using Ansys^® software, and for the electronic circuit designed in LTSpice^® software, the artificial neural network used to estimate the flow and the volume estimates from the trapezoidal pulses. The results obtained allowed us to assess that, taking into account the type of coating, the sensor coated with polyester has better behavior for the proposed hydrometer. In addition, this evaluation allowed us to conclude that the bend sensor demonstrated its feasibility to be used as a transducer of this novel type of volumetric meter and can be easily inserted inside a hydraulic component, such as a flow control valve, for example.

The demand for sustainable energy generation and storage methods has become inevitable. As a result, numerous sectors are investing in research focused on energy harvesting (EH) techniques. In this context, a promising area involves integrating piezoelectric materials into unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – an application that enables electrical energy generation from the kinetic energies produced during flight. This article aims to use polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric transducers coupled to an EH power management unit (LTC35881) to convert and store electrical energy generated by wind from the propellers and motor vibration. Methodologically, the motor and transducers are characterized, a model is developed using LTSpice®, and experimental validation of the performance of this coupling is carried out for output voltages (Vout) of 1.8 V, 2.5 V, 3.3 V, and 3.6 V. With a motor rotation speed of 3975 rpm, the transducers generated a voltage amplitude of 17.3 V, enabling the capacitor coupled to the EH power management unit – adjusted to the highest Vout – to be charged in approximately 162 s. Thus, this study demonstrated the feasibility of using PVDF as a piezoelectric nanogenerator in UAVs, enabling onboard electronic circuits and sensors to be powered while reserving the battery solely for propulsion, thereby increasing flight autonomy.