2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. All rights reserved. This chapter presents a novel concept of simultaneous energy harvesting and gust alleviation for a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The heart of the autonomous gust alleviation system is a multifunctional spar. The chapter examines a wing spar that performs not only its strength function but also the functions of computing, harvesting, sensing, energy storage and control. The energy-harvesting component uses the piezoelectric effect to transduce low- level wing vibrations into usable electrical energy. The harvesting and storage component consists of the monolithic PZT coupled through electronics to the thin-film battery. The original concept for this part of the multifunctional spar was a self-charging structure. The chapter looks at harvesting effects under flutter speed. Harvesting energy involves extracting energy from a structure and, as such, provides some vibration suppression or additional damping to the structure.
