1st report of a study on gyroscopic power generator

Prototype and its fundamental characteristics

Yohei Kamiya

Manabu Kasahara

Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of

Tokyo
5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba-ken 277-8561
Japan

Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of

Tokyo
5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba-ken 277-8561
Japan

Hiroshi Hosaka
Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of
Tokyo
5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa-shi, Chiba-ken 277-8561
Japan
AbstractThe largest problem in realizing a ubiquitous
information system is the energy supply. In order to solve this
problem, a gyroscopic power generator that amplifies the input
vibration and makes the magnet rotate at high speed has been
developed. The basic structure is a Dynabee with a magnet
and a solenoid. In addition, the generator was made to work as
a motor , which was started automatically by providing an
initial velocity. The ability to generate 1 W of power from
vibration, the frequency of which is as low as 2 Hz, as well as
the ability to charge a mobile phone were demonstrated.

copper wire is wound around the precession face for high

efficiency. It generates 1 W of power, which is sufficient to
charge a mobile phone. In addition, by making a generator
act as a motor, the dynabee was made to activate
automatically.
II. STRUCTURE AND THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE
GYROSCOPIC POWER GENERATOR.
The structure of the gyroscopic power generator is shown in
Fig. 1.

Keywords-component; gyroscope;generator;dynabee

I. INTRODUCTION (HEADING 1)
The downsizing of telecommunication devices has led to
ubiquitous information systems through the fixing of sensors
to numerous artificial and natural objects and the exchange of
information over the Internet. In order to realize such a
sensor network, research on micro energy sources in which
environmental light, heat, and vibration are converted to
electric power is currently being conducted [1]. A
mechanical generator that converts vibration to electric
power has numerous advantages. For example, it has little
limitation of applications to use and has a large potential
energy. Moreover, such a generator can be used as a motion
sensor. The existing vibration power generator basically
causes an internal weight to vibrate at the same frequency as
the input frequency. Therefore, the speed of the weight is
slow from a vibration from humans motion, and the
generator can only generate less than 1 mW of power.
However, an instrument referred to as a Dynabee, which
was invented by Archie L. Mishler, makes the rotor spin
dozens of times faster than the input vibration by combining
the rotors spin and precession [2]. An electromagnetic
induction system was embedded inside a Dynabee, and it was
demonstrated that the Dynabee can be used as a power
generator. The motion characteristics of the Dynabee were
the electromagnetic conversion efficiency does not
deteriorate for any rotor angle. In addition, for high
efficiency, the magnet and the solenoid should be placed in
close proximity to each other. Moreover, the Dynabee
requires an initial velocity to be imparted manually. When
using vibration generated by humans, which stops and starts
frequently, the dynabee must be activated automatically. In
the present study, the rotor is covered with magnets and

978-1-4244-6890-4/10$26.00 2010 IEEE

z
Rotor

Magnet
Solenoid

x
x

Fig.1 Gyroscopic power generator

The gyroscopic power generator is constructed of a rotor

that rotates about the Y-axis at
the shaft of which is
supported by the track rotating on it. When the track rotates
, based on the law of conservation of
about the X-axis at
angular momentum, the rotor begins to precess about the
Z-axis at
. Then, friction from the track will be added to
the rotor shaft, and torque will develop to enhance the speed
of the rotor. As a result, when an angular vibration is added
to the track, the speed of the rotor will increase.
Here, the track is assumed to vibrate angularly under the
condition in which the vibration amplitude of the track is
and the angular frequency is .
(1)

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Where =

.When the radius of the track is

, the

, and the ratio of these two

radius of the rotor axis is
radii is . Then, the following equation holds:
(2)
In addition, the viscous torque (electromagnetic power),
denoted as , is expected to be proportional to the rotor
speed. Here, the condition in which the rotor rotates steadily
is given by the following equation:

I 1 o
2

(3)
is the moment of inertia about the rotor axis.
Where
From equation (3), the value of in the limit of the steady
state can be obtained. Using this value, the theoretical
maximum power P that can be generated by the gyro is
given by the following equation:
(4)
III. CONSTRUCTION OF THE PROTOTYPE AND ITS BASIC
CHARACTERISTICS

The generator is based on a commercially available

Dynabee, as shown on Fig. 2. The diameter of the generator
is approximately 68 mm, and is 32.9. A total of 200 turns of
copper wire having a diameter of 0.2 mm was wrapped
around the track. Neodymium magnets were fitted to the
rotor, as shown on Fig. 3. As many magnets as possible were
fitted to the rotor. As shown in equation (4), the generated
power P is proportional to the moment of inertia. Therefore,
dynamically, it is advantageous to cover the rotor with as
many magnets as possible.

Fig.4 Generated voltage

In addition, a steel yoke was tested and was placed

around the generator. This created a closed magnetic circuit,
but the rotation was not steady because of cogging torque.
In addition, when the number of coil turns was increased,
the output power decreased because of the increase in
internal resistance. When the generator receives an external
vibration, the rotor will spin and generate AC power as
shown in Fig. 4. The frequency is the same as the frequency
of the rotors rotation. The voltage was 35 V with no load.
A power of 1 W was generated when the input frequency
was 2.8 Hz, and the load was 130 . This is sufficient power
to charge a mobile phone. However, from equation (4), the
theoretical maximum output is approximately 6 W. The
reason for this six-fold increase is the internal resistance of
the solenoid and the friction between the rotor and the track.
Using a rectifier and a regulator, the AC current was rectified
to a DC current and was verified to be capable of charging a
mobile phone. A schematic diagram of the mobile phone
charging is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig.5 Mobile phone charging

Fig.2 Prototype generator

IV. SELF ACTIVATION OF THE ROTOR

4.1 Principle of activation
After the text edit has been completed, the paper is ready
Torque=mH|cos|

Torque=mH|cos|

Fig.3 Alignment of the magnets

Fig.6 Mechanism of activation

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For this generator, rotation does not occur unless there is

an initial velocity that equals the steady state rotation. In
order to add the initial velocity automatically, a method by
which to cause the generator to act as a motor was developed.
The principle of the activation is shown in Fig. 6. When the
angle of the rotor is in the range of 90 < < 90,
a magnetic field will be applied upward, and when the angle
is in the range of 90 < < 270, a magnetic field will
be applied downward. When this is performed continuously,
the rotor will continue to rotate in the same direction. In
order to realize this scheme, two methods were developed.
The first is an open-loop method, which is easy to develop,
and the second is a closed-loop method, the activation time
of which is short.

However, with this method, the rotor will stop rotating

when precession starts, because when the rotor is viewed
from the hall element placed on the track, the direction of the
spin of the rotor will be reversed when the rotors precession
angle is 180. At this time, the rotor will stop and it will be
impossible to make the rotor rotate in the same direction
continuously.
Therefore, the hall element was placed above the rotor as
shown in Fig. 9, and the relative position of the rotor and the
hall element do not change. In addition, in order to reverse
the magnetic field with the same timing as shown in Fig. 8,
the magnetic field of the solenoid is reversed when the
voltage of the hall element is maximum and minimum.

4.2 Open-loop activation

Open-loop activation is a method by which to add a sine
wave current with a variable frequency to the solenoid. A
diagram of this method is shown in Fig. 8. When the gyro
function acts as a generator, the solenoid output connects to
the charging circuit. However, for the activation, the gyro
connects to the AC power source. When the frequency of the
power source was steadily increased from 0.1 to 50 Hz, the
state in Fig. 6 can be automatically obtained. When the
period of the input current is long (a few seconds), the
magnet will rotate until it becomes parallel to the magnetic
field. The magnet stops rotating after vibrating for some time.
When the period becomes short (approximately one second),
the rotation of the magnets and the solenoids frequency are in
agreement and continue to rotate in the same manner. Then,
the speed of the rotor increases when the frequency increases.
H

Drive logic +Hbridge

Fig.9Mechanism of closed-loop activation ( hallE above)

Torque
N

Power source

S
(a) -90<<90

Torque
N

Fig.10Comparison of coil voltage

(b) 90<<270

Fig.2 Mechanism of open-loop activation

Fig.7Mechanism
of open-loop activation

Fig.7Mechanism of open-loop activation

4.3 Closed-loop activation

By detecting the angle of the rotor, when the magnetic field
is reversed when the magnet is vertical to the plane of the
solenoid, the efficiency of the rotation by magnetic torque is
maximum. The simplest method by which to realize this
scheme is shown in Fig. 8. A hall element was placed in a
coil plane to detect the angle of the rotor. When the rotors
magnetic field reverses when the angle is 90 or -90, the
magnetic field of the solenoid will be reversed. This is the
same mechanism as that of a normal brushless DC motor.
N

Coil

Drive
logic +Hbridge
Trigger+Amp.

Fig.11Drive algorithm

S
Hall element

Fig.8Mechanism of closed-loop activation

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Current(A)

There are few methods by which to reverse the magnetic

field when the voltage of the hall element is maximum and
minimum, as shown in Fig. 10. Examples include
configuring a threshold and defining the maximum and
minimum, as well as derivative control. In the present study,
as shown in Fig. 11, derivative control will be used to
support rotors that have magnetic fields of different
intensities, as well as to support the variable length of the
rotor and the hall element. More specifically, when the
gradient of the voltage of the hall element is positive,
positive voltage will be added to the solenoid, and when the
gradient of the solenoid is negative, negative voltage will be
added to the solenoid. In addition, for derivative control, the
initial velocity is required so that some current is added to he
solenoid for 0.4 seconds. Using this method, the rotor is
made to rotate continuously, even if the rotor starts to
precess. In addition, an CPU (R8C/2D Renesas electronics)
was used for this control and was controlled in real time.
The set-up for this control is shown in Fig. 12.

Time(Sec)

Fig.14Activation current of openloop

Power(W)

Hbridge

Fig.15Power consumption of openloop

Time(Sec)

Hall Element
gyro

Voltage(V)

Speed of gyro

coil

R8C/2D CPU

Time(Sec)

Fig.12 Activation Equipment

Fig.16Activation voltage of closedloop

4.4. Comparison of energy consumption

The energy consumptions of the two methods were
compared for the case in which the rotor was accelerated
from 0 to 50 Hz.

Current(A)

Voltage(V)

Time(Sec)
Time(Sec)

Fig.17Activation current of closedloop

Fig.13Activation voltage of openloop

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Figure 20 shows the power generated when the generator is

charging batteries, and Fig. 21 shows the power used when
the rotor speed is maintained at 2,000 rpm.

Power(W)

Power(W)

Current(A)

Time(Sec)

Fig.18Power consumption of closedloop

First, in the case of the open-loop method, the voltage of the

solenoid was measured as shown in Fig. 13. At the same
time, the current was measured as shown in Fig. 14. Thus,
the power consumption was measured as shown in Fig. 15
by multiplying Fig. 13 and Fig. 14. As the rotation speed
increases, the rotation speed sometimes takes a negative
value because of the counter-electromotive force of the
solenoid. A total of 11 seconds was required to accelerate to
50 Hz, and 93 J of energy was consumed. Figure 16 shows
the voltage of the solenoid of closed-loop method. The input
frequency increases steadily, indicating that the rotation
speed is increasing automatically. Figure 18 shows the
power consumption. One second was required to accelerate
to 50 Hz and 8.7 J of energy was consumed. The closed-loop
method was eleven times faster with respect to activation
and consumed eleven times less energy as compared to the
open-loop method. Therefore, the closed-loop method is
efficient for activating the rotor.
V. AUTOMATION OF ACTIVATION AND POWER GENERATION
Using the equipment shown in Fig. 12, the following control
was performed. When the speed of the rotor is 2,000 rpm,
activation starts, and when the speed of the rotor exceeds
2,000 rpm, the generator is shaken by hand to charge the
NiMH battery. A relay was used to change the activation
and charging circuit, and a micro controller was used for the
electronic control. A schematic diagram of the change-over
mechanism is shown in Fig. 19.

Relay

Fig.20 Generated power of gyro

Time(Sec)

Power(W)

Time(Sec)

Fig.21 Power to maintain 2000rpm

Using the equipment shown in Fig. 12, the generator was

able to charge five NiMH batteries with an average power of
0.5 W. In addition, the generator consumed an average of
0.3 W of power in order to maintain a rotor speed of 2,000
rpm. Therefore, the activation, the retrieval of the stability,
and the generation of power were done in a practicable order.
The output of the generator does not reach 1 W because Fig.
12 used a different generator from Fig. 3, and the solenoid
and the magnet were not optimized for the generator.
VI. CONCLUSION
In the present study, magnetic circuits were developed and
optimized for the generator in order to obtain greater power
output and these circuits were demonstrated to be able to
charge a mobile phone. In addition, two methods by which
to confirm the method of self activation were proposed. The
open-loop method required 11 seconds to accelerate to 50
Hz and consumed 93 J. The closed-loop method required 1
second and consumed 8.7 J. Thus, the open-loop method is
advantageous. Based on these considerations, the activation
and the power generation were automated, and were verified
to work for the generator.
REFERENCES
[1]

Fig.19 Change over mechanism of activation and power

generation

S. Roundy, P. K. Wright, J. M. Rabaey Energy Scavenging for

Wireless Sensor Networks with Special Focus on Vibrations
[2]
Archie L. MishlerGyroscopic Device, United States Patent 3726146,
Apr. 10, 1973
[3]
T. Ishii, Y. Goto, T. Ogawa and H. Hosaka: Development of
Gyroscopic Power Generator, J. Jpn. Soc. Precis. Eng., 74, 7, (2008)
764 (in Japanese).

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