Experimental evaluation of Tusi couple based energy harvester for scavenging power from human motion

Abstract

This paper deals with the experimental performance evaluation of the prototype of a novel inertial energy harvester based on Tusi couple mechanism. The harvester was developed as an autonomous power source for environments with very low frequency and magnitude of mechanical vibrations available. The experiments were conducted using human body during different activities as a source of mechanical excitation, with the prospect of using the harvester for powering up future wearable electronic devices. Four different locations on a single measurement specimen were picked for the harvester placement - back of the head, belt, wrist and ankle. Measurements in each location comprised of walking on a straight and level path at natural speed, walking up and down the stairs, jumping, running, and location-specific activities that were expected to provide significant output power. The measured average output power of the device with dimensions 50x50x20 mm on empirically selected 2 kΩ electrical load reached up to 6.5 mW, obtained with the device attached to the ankle while shaking the leg.