Drone Rotational Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Supplemental Power Generation and RPM Sensing

Abstract

The global drone market is a multibillion-dollar industry that is experiencing rapid growth. While drones are commonly used for aerial photography, videography, surveying, search and rescue operations, most consumer and enterprise drones have limited onboard electronics other than what is required for basic flight operation. Such limitation is due to payload constraints, where more onboard electronics would require a larger battery pack, which increases the total payload and leads to higher energy consumption. To overcome this, a drone rotational triboelectric nanogenerator is developed comprising four units connected to the propellers’ motors of a quadcopter drone to capture and recycle the kinetic energy of the motors’ rotational energy for use as a supplemental power supply for onboard electronics. In this work, we report a drone rotational triboelectric nanogenerator that achieves a high surface power density of 3.24 W/m², charges capacitors, and operates as a self-powered RPM sensor.