Solar and Thermal Energy Harvesting Textile Composites for Aerospace Applications

The proposed research focuses on developing novel energy harvesting devices that can be integrated with loadbearing structures in an air vehicle (e.g. a UAV). Several ambient energy sources are available on a UAV: light, heat, and vibration. The amount of energy available from light and heat exceeds that in vibration, so this work focuses on the first two modes of harvesting.