This paper presents the feasibility of using piezoelectric materials in a power source for micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) devices. The finite element method (FEM) is adopted to evaluate the power generations of commercially available piezofilms that are subjected to a fluctuating pressure source (blood pressure). The accuracy of the results obtained from the FEM is verified by comparing with the corresponding results obtained from a theoretical analysis. In addition, an experiment is undertaken in order to evaluate the power generation of two different shapes of the piezofilms: square and circle. Finally, a brief discussion is made on the storage of experimentally harvested power and use of the MEMS applications.

In this paper, a controllable electrorheological fluid suspension system (ERSS) is proposed for a tracked vehicle. After identifying the Bingham properties of an electrorheological fluid, a double-rod-type ERSS is devised, and its damping characteristics are evaluated with respect to the intensity of the electric field. Subsequently, the governing equation of motion of a tracked vehicle featuring the ERSS is established followed by the formulation of a linearized state space model. An optimal controller integrated with Kalman filter is then designed in order to suppress unwanted vibrations of the tracked vehicle subjected to bump and random road excitations. Control performances such as vertical acceleration at the centre of gravity are evaluated in both time and frequency domains.