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Generating electricity while walking with a medial-lateral oscillating load carriage device.

ABSTRACT: Biomechanical energy harvesters generate electricity, from human movement, to power portable electronics. We developed an energy harvesting module to be used in conjunction with a load carriage device that allows carried mass in a backpack to oscillate in the medial-lateral (M-L) direction. The energy harvesting module was designed to tune M-L oscillations of the carried mass to create favourable device-user interaction. We tested seven energy harvesting conditions and compared them to walking with the device when the weight was rigidly fixed to the backpack frame. For each energy harvesting condition, we changed the external load resistance: altering how much electricity was being generated and how much the carried mass would oscillate. We then correlated device behaviour to the biomechanical response of the user. The energy harvesting load carriage system generated electricity with no significant increase in the metabolic power required to walk, when compared to walking with the carried weight rigidly fixed. The device was able to generate up to 0.22 ± 0.03 W of electricity, while walking with 9 kg of carried weight. The device also reduced the interaction forces experienced by the user, in the M-L direction, compared to walking with the device when the mass was rigidly fixed.

SUBMITTER: Martin JP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6689621 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Generating electricity while walking with a medial-lateral oscillating load carriage device.

Martin Jean-Paul JP Li Qingguo Q

Royal Society open science 20190710 7

Biomechanical energy harvesters generate electricity, from human movement, to power portable electronics. We developed an energy harvesting module to be used in conjunction with a load carriage device that allows carried mass in a backpack to oscillate in the medial-lateral (M-L) direction. The energy harvesting module was designed to tune M-L oscillations of the carried mass to create favourable device-user interaction. We tested seven energy harvesting conditions and compared them to walking w ...[more]

PMID: 31417695

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Project description:A wearable energy harvester technology is developed for generating electricity from the movement of human joints. A micro-electroplated ferromagnetic nickel cantilever is integrated with a piezoelectric element and bonded on a flexible substrate. Based on the magnetic interaction between the magnetized cantilever and a magnet on the substrate, a novel vertical-vibration frequency-up-conversion (FUC) structure is formed to generate stable amounts of electric energy per cycle from the horizontal substrate stretching/rebounding. The two ends of the flexible substrate are attached on both sides of a limb joint to transform joint rotation into substrate stretching. During limb movement, the flexible substrate is horizontally stretched and rebounded, causing the cantilever to vertically release from and return to the magnet, thereby exciting the piezoelectric cantilever into resonant generation. Since the horizontal low-frequency limb movement is perpendicular to the vertical high-frequency resonance, the stretch has little influence on the resonance of the cantilever. Thus the generated energy is always stable within a wide frequency range of limb movements. The performance of the novel harvester is experimentally verified using a stretching/rebounding movement cycle, where the cycle corresponds to the frequency range of 0.5-5.0 Hz. Within one stretching/rebounding movement cycle, the generated electric energy is stable in the approximate range of 0.56-0.69 μJ for the whole frequency range. Two flexible harvesters are worn on the human elbow and knee for a body kinetic energy harvesting test. Considerable power can always be generated under typical low-frequency limb movements, such as squatting, walking, jogging, and fast running, where the peak-to-peak generated voltages are always approximately 4.0 V. Additionally, energy harvesting under two-directional area stretching is also realized by adjusting the FUC structure layout. The flexible-substrate harvester is promising for various wearable applications.

Dataset Information

Generating electricity while walking with a medial-lateral oscillating load carriage device.

Publications

Generating electricity while walking with a medial-lateral oscillating load carriage device.

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