Triboelectricity Based Self-Powered Digital Displacement Sensor for Aircraft Flight Actuation

The utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is on the rise across various industries. In such a scenario, the issue of flight safety for these UAVs becomes increasingly paramount. Currently, UAVs exhibit shortcomings in flight attitude perception compared to more mature manned aircraft, especially concerning the position sensing of flight actuation, which poses significant safety risks. Mature position monitoring solutions for flight actuation used in manned aircraft cannot be directly integrated into systems of UAV due to compatibility issues. This necessitates the development of new position sensing technologies to address this challenge. Triboelectric nanogenerators, with their advantages of miniaturization, self-powering capabilities, and the ability to generate voltage-level electrical signals, are chosen to form a part of the position detection system for sensors in UAVs. In this study, a self-powered displacement sensor is developed that utilizes frictional charge separation signals. This sensor is specifically designed to monitor the position status of the flight actuators in UAV. With a compact volume of <11.1 cm3 and a weight of <9.5 g, this sensor is lightweight efficient and adaptable for practical applications.