Characterization of a smart transducer for axial force measurements in vibrating environments

Abstract The possibility to harvest energy from ambient sources and to measure additional physical quantities at the same time and by a single device is of great interest in the context of “industry 4.0”. In this paper, we present a smart electromagnetic energy transducer that performs two tasks simultaneously: measurement of axial forces and energy harvesting. The proposed device is completely passive and able to operate in vibrating environments having very weak amplitudes even less than 0.5 mm. In response to kinetic energy coming from environmental vibration, the electromagnetic transducer is able to operate as an energy scavenger and as a measurement system of the applied axial force as characteristic property of the source itself. The sensor system, presented in this paper, is also capable to transmit the measurement data through an optical fiber without necessity of supplementary active conditioning circuits. The system has been designed, analytically modeled and a laboratory prototype has been realized. An extensive experimental investigation has carried out to show the performance assessment of the overall system and the metrological characterization of the measurement functions.