Vibration energy harvesting enhancement in systems with modulated noise

Energy harvesting promises to make self-powered electronic systems feasible, and to increase the lifetime of battery powered systems almost indefinitely. It is based on the idea to scavenge power from the surrounding environment, in the form of electromagnetic radiation, solar light, temperature gradients, or mechanical vibrations, and to convert it into usable electrical energy. One bottleneck in this technology is the limited energy density of ambient noise, which requires high efficient energy harvesting systems. We show that, for systems with modulated noise, the collected energy can be maximized by a proper control of the state of the system, and we develop a procedure to design the optimal state.