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nanotimes News in Brief

11-11/12 :: November/December 2011

Robotics // Insect Cyborgs Monitor Hazardous Situations

© Text: Matt Nixon P

rofessor Khalil Najafi, and doctoral student Erkan Aktakka at the University of Michigan College

of Engineering are finding ways to harvest energy from insects, and take the utility of the miniature cyborgs to the next level.

“Through energy scavenging, we could potentially power cameras, microphones and other sensors and communications equipment that an insect could carry aboard a tiny backpack,” Najafi said. “We could then send these ‘bugged‘ bugs into dangerous or enclosed environments where we would not want humans to go.”

A spiral piezoelectric generator was designed to ma- ximize the power output by employing a compliant structure in a limited area. The technology develo- ped to fabricate this prototype includes a process to machine high-aspect ratio devices from bulk pie- zoelectric substrates with minimum damage to the material using a femtosecond laser.

Ethem Erkan Aktakka, Hanseup Kim, Khalil Najafi: Energy scavenging from insect flight, In: Journal of Micromecha- nics and Microengineering, Volume 21(2011), Number 9, Article 095016, DOI:10.1088/0960-1317/21/9/095016: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/21/9/095016 http://www.engin.umich.edu http://www.eecs.umich.edu/najafi/

Through a device invented at the University of Michigan, an insect‘s wing movements can generate enough electri- city to power small sensors such as a tiny camera, micro- phone or gas sensor. Two initial generator prototypes were fabricated, mounted on a beetle, and harvested 11.5 and 7.5 µW in device volumes of 11.0 and 5.6 mm3

, respec-

tively, from 85 to 100 Hz wing strokes during the beetle‘s tethered flight. © Erkan Aktakka / University of Michigan