The team consisted of myself along with advising and help from Dr. Kenneth Visser, the Shipley Center for Innovation, with resources and facilities from Clarkson University. 

Main Elements: 

• Product Design/Development

• Intellectual Property

• Technical Writing/Research

• Design of Experiments

Background

I began development of the Undula Generator while a senior in high school.

As a freshman I proposed my own project based learning pathway and the administration was supportive - allowing me to take AP courses while pursuing my own lines of inquiry: engineering, design, and digital technology. I was able to learn coding, CAD, and basic machining and engineering. I created the very first initial concepts in my junior year. As a senior I won Vermont's largest Maker's Fair prize for innovation, built the first proof of concept model, and left high school with a provisional patent on the design. 

I chose to attend Clarkson University because they offered to give me the resources and help I needed to develop the concept further. With help from the Shipley Center for Innovation and Dr. Kenneth Visser, I was able to - in my spare time - test, iterate, and finally patent the Undula Generator. 

The Problem We Solve

Undula Tech started with a simple question: How can we make renewable energy more accessible & affordable? 

Currently, there are 840 million people across the world without access to electricity. Small scale wind and solar is too expensive to fill the gap. 

Even a small 10kwh US residential wind turbine costs upwards of $40,000-60,000, without installation fees and insurance. This puts wind energy far outside the reach of many households, and completely off the table for individuals in poor, rural regions without access to a centralized power grid. 

I believed there needed to be solution that harnessed the potential of existing resources and natural forces.

Design Considerations

To design the Undula Generator we utilized three main concepts: 

• 1. Reframing Existing Technology. 

• I had to look at hydraulic or wind powered turbines as a machine that generates electricity by working with--or against-- the movement of water or air.  

2. Looking to Nature. 

• I turned to the field of Biomimicry--the philosophy of looking at nature and its 3.8 billion years of R&D to gain inspiration for solving design and engineering challenges.

• With these concepts in mind I looked at how nature moved efficiently through air or water as a way to create novel turbine movement. 

• I took initial inspiration from cuttlefish – a small cousin of the squid– that lives in reefs and shallow seas. The undulating motion of its fins propelled it almost magically through the water and I wondered if the same process would work in reverse as a way to generate power. 

3. Using Existing Resources.

• I wanted to design a turbine that could be easily integrated into existing infrastructure. One that could be mounted on rooftops, the sides of tall buildings, along highways, or in rivers to generator wind power. It would be tower less and easily mountable to minimize construction and installation costs.

Initial Designs 

Several initial Design concepts were explored - constructed out of Cardboard, dowels, and paper.

The very first iteration of the design used small, pump bases generators attached to each of the undulating fin’s supporting ribs. But this idea was later scrapped and deemed too inefficient, complex, and costly. 

This preliminary testing and prototyping lead us to the current crankshaft design.

CAD was used to flesh out the designs further and small scale models of the crankshaft design were 3D printed and tested.

The Undula Generator 

The core design element that differentiates the Undula Generator is it’s patented undulating fin that moves through a flow--either air or water--to generate power. 

This fin is supported by upright ribs that move on an axis and connect to a crankshaft. As the flowing medium moves past the fin, it causes any length of the ribbed sail to undulate. The sections of fin move back and forth, turning the crankshaft and in turn, the generator creates power. 

The machine is designed to be mounted on existing structures such as rooftops or tall buildings, and can be mounted in water as a low impact hydro generator in rivers.

Literature Research

With this initial design in mind, I performed a literature review to further inform  the design by looking at both biology and engineering. 

Much of the existing research focused on the efficiency of undulation-based motion, but I found no research on undulation as a starting point for power generation. This gap in the existing research inspired me further, because it indicated that I may be testing a concept that very few people had considered.

A formal patent search later yielded the same results.

Proof of Concept Model

Once the initial design elements were finalized, I found a local machinist who helped me turn my concept into reality. The proof of concept model smoothly and easily moved on its own in the wind!

This design was much larger than the initial cardboard and paper concepts and though these preliminary tests told us nothing about the design’s efficiency it did prove the mechanism would move when acted upon by a moving flow – a step in the right direction. 

Prototype Testing 

Armed with my proof of concept model and initial research, I created a second prototype with improvements and pushed forward to formally test the concept in a professional research setting to understand the variables that would affect the efficiency of the undulating design as a wind turbine

Utilizing Clarkson University’s Wind Tunnel Facility, I was able to run efficiency tests comparing our turbine to conventional turbines of comparable outputs.  I documented the experiments and findings in a research paper. (Available Here)

Results: 

1) Efficiency was low - but that was not unexpected. 

• Given that the design is a drag-based turbine (conventional bladed turbines are lift based) it would inherently have lower efficiencies. 

• This was only the first prototype there were bound to be mechanical inefficiencies and design elements I was unaware of that would affect its output. 

2) Cost/kWh was still lower than conventional turbines. 

• A key aspect of the feasibility of turbines is the cost/kwh and the cost of the Undula Generator even at this initial stage is far lower than that of conventional turbines of similar output. 

Pivot 

The results of the first test made me rethink two main aspects of the design: 

1) Application - This design should be tested in water. 

• Bladed turbines utilize lift to increase their aerodynamics and efficiency. The concept of airfoils used in these lift bases designs is based on the shapes of bird wings – a design that evolved in air. 

• The design of the Undula Generator was based on an aquatic animal and therefore should be tested in water as a hydro-turbine. 

2) Design - The shape of the fin should be based on Manta Rays

• The design was based on cuttlefish – a creature who is small and never travels very far for very long and does not need to be an efficient swimmer. 

• Manta Rays are migratory creatures that nearly never cease swimming. They have far larger fins than cuttlefish, a far larger amplitude to their undulation, and a far slower undulation. 

User Feedback

Throughout this process, I iteratively talked to many people who would be potential residential end users. Much of the feedback was about cost, noise, and view disruption. 

Users in more suburban environments cared greatly about the view the design would create on top of their home and to potential noise creation, however, rural customers cared far less about these. Some users wanted the Undula Generator to be the main source of power while others were happy with the design augmenting and supplementing their power usage. Ideas were put forward to utilize the design as supplemental power generation after storms or power outages. 

I consulted a micro-hydro site operator in upstate New York to discuss the logistics, challenges, and benefits of the design as a hydro turbine. 

Patent Proceedings 

Seeing that the design had potential, and such a wide range of uses, we decided to pursue a patent on the concept.

While the design may not compete with conventional large scale wind and solar (which was never our goal) it could be enormously beneficial in many places where flowing mediums are going untapped as a resource for renewable energy: on buildings, in roadways, tunnels, tidal areas, and rivers.

In remote places around the world, this design could be a component of a decentralized grid of smaller-scale generators. And as micro-hydro generators in rivers or tidal areas, the undulating design would not negatively impact fish populations or the natural environment.

A patent was awarded in August 2020. 

Next Steps

1) Continued Testing

This process is ongoing. There is still testing to be done. The design still has to be tested in water as a hydro turbine and I would like to repeat the tests done in air with the new Manta Ray design. 

2) Licensing Patent

The Undula Generator has great promise as an accessible, modular, low impact, small scale turbine for air, waves, tides, and water. The efficacy of the design is clear in the aquatic life we took initial inspiration from. If this design is good enough for some of the oldest life forms on our planet – then why not for us? 

Lessons and Takeaways 

Thus far, this endeavor has demanded that I develop a magnitude of experience in technical research, design of experiments, technical writing, machining, turbine designs, biology, and IP protection.