Performances analysis of piezoelectric cantilever based energy harvester devoted to mesoscale intra-body robot

Mesoscale robots, including active capsules, are a promising and well suited approach for minimal invasive intra-body intervention. However, within the numerous works, the main limitation in these robots is the embedded energy used for their locomotion and for the tasks they should accomplish. The limited autonomy and the limited power make them finally unusable for real situations such as active capsules inside body during several tens of minutes. In this paper, we propose an approach to power mesoscale robots by using energy harvesting techniques through a piezoelectric cantilever structure embedded on the robot and through an oscillating magnetic excitation. The physical model of the proposed system is carried out and simulation results are yielded and analyzed accordingly to the influencing parameters such as the number of layers in the cantilever and its dimensions. Finally, the feasability of this solution is proved and perspectives are discussed.