Measurement and Analysis of Drone Vibration Profiles for Piezoelectric Micro Energy Harvesting

This work presents an evaluation of the vibrational energy available on multirotor drones and its suitability for piezoelectric micro-energy harvesting. The drone vibration profile was first acquired through a triaxial accelerometer mounted on a mock-up drone during controlled operating conditions. The measured acceleration signals were analysed to extract dominant spectral components up to 500 Hz, which were then used to synthesize an equivalent excitation signal. This signal was reproduced in laboratory through a body shaker driven by an arbitrary waveform generator, enabling deterministic replication of the drone vibration spectrum. The accuracy of the reproduced accelerations was validated through FFT-based comparisons with the original drone measurements. Piezoelectric transducers mounted on the shaker were finally tested to quantify the harvestable energy when subjected to the synthesized vibration profile. Experimental results show that, even under worst-case conditions, the piezoelectric elements, combined with a battery-management circuit, can accumulate measurable energy over time, confirming the feasibility of supporting ultra-low-power electronics onboard drones. These findings establish a repeatable methodology for characterizing drone vibration spectra and assessing their energy-harvesting potentiality.