Energy-harvesting development is progressing through the commercial revenues
from products, including skis and rackets, and from recently received
Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) R&D grants from the U.S. Army
for developing smart self-powered munitions and from DARPA for making
self-powered “ice thumpers” that use the vibration of an aircraft to power
actuators to expand—similar to the skis and rackets—to fracture ice buildup on
aircraft leading edges.
In October 2003, ACI received a Phase I SBIR grant from the U.S. Navy for
an innovative system, based on its ceramic-fiber technology, to produce a
new generation of missile radomes. A Phase II SBIR subcontract is underway
to make the sensing elements for a new sonar sensor, using ACI’s piezoelectric
fiber composites.
The potential uses of this technology are enormous. Anywhere information on
the condition of a structure or activity needs to be monitored, and batteries
are not practical, and there is adequate vibration or other source of mechanical
energy, there are applications for ACI’s flexible piezoelectric ceramic-fiber
composite energy-harvesting technology