An innovative device for traffic energy harvesting

In recent years the increase of massive connections of renewable systems to power grid has highlighted the need to address stability issues with ad-hoc techniques. On the other side, the complexity of electronic devices requires an integrated approach for the different layers of the system, especially in terms of power quality. This task is often supported by advanced soft computing techniques that can be applied by engineers to several device model and used with optimization process, in order to find out the best design improving the system performance and the industrial electronics applications. These techniques promise also to give new impulse to research on renewable systems and, especially in the last five years, on the so called Energy Harvesting Devices (EHDs). In this paper an innovative speed bumper for energy harvesting from traffic activities is presented. Energy is converted by means of a suitably designed Tubular Permanent Magnet-Linear Generator.