HarvesterOpt: Harvester Optimizer is a Matlab code to solve an optimization problem to maximize the energy recovered by a bistable piezo-magneto-elastic energy harvesting system. The implementation follows an educational style, to make its use very intuitive.

This package includes the following files:

• CrossEntropyOpt_Example.m. -- script with an one dimensional optimization with the CE method
• HarvesterOpt_DirectSearch.m -- script with a program to optimize the harveters via direct serach
• HarvesterOpt_CrossEntropy.m -- script with a program to optimize the harveters via CE method
• PiezoMagBeam_ObjFunc.m. -- function that defines the objetive function
• PiezoMagBeam_ObjFuncNoise.m -- function that defines the objetive function with noise
• PiezoMagBeam_RHS.m -- function that defines the harvester equations
• test01chaos.m -- function to compute the 0-1 test for chaos
• trandn.m -- function to draw samples from truncated distribution
• plot_ce_animation.m -- function to plot an animation with CE search for the optimum
• graph_contour_pnt.m -- function to plot a contourmap and a given point
• graph_binarymap.m -- function to plot a binary contourmap

Software History

This code was developed to optimize the amount of energy recovered by a nonlinear bistable piezoelectric energy harvester. The simulation results associated with this optimization process are reported in the following paper:

• A. Cunha Jr, Enhancing the performance of a bistable energy harvesting device via the cross-entropy method, Nonlinear Dynamics, 103:137-155, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-020-06109-0

Preprint available at: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01531845v3

Videos

Animations illustrating the operation of the CE method can be seen in the following playlist:

• https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjNDdMKtfqVnU4QIubzpeE25szNEbEdBZ

Author

• Americo Cunha Jr

Citing HarvesterOpt

We ask the code users to cite the following manuscript in any publications reporting work done with HarvesterOpt:

• A. Cunha Jr, Enhancing the performance of a bistable energy harvesting device via the cross-entropy method, Nonlinear Dynamics, 103:137-155, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-020-06109-0

@article{CunhaJr2021p137,
   author  = {A. {Cunha~Jr}},
   title   = {Enhancing the performance of a bistable energy harvesting device via the cross-entropy method},
   journal = {Nonlinear Dynamics},
   year    = {2021},
   volume  = {103},
   pages   = {137-155},
   note    = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11071-020-06109-0},
}

License

HarvesterOpt is released under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for details. All new contributions must be made under the MIT license.

Institutional support

Funding