The harvesting of energy from human motion for portable and wearable electronic devices has received considerable attention. This letter describes a lightweight macrofiber composite (MFC)-based energy harvester for capturing biomechanical energy through the natural motion of the human knee. In the proposed device, a slider-crank mechanism is used to transform the rotary motion of the knee joint to linear motion, and a bending beam is used to transform the linear motion to a bending motion. When walking, a bending deformation is induced in two MFC slices attached to the bending beam, generating electrical energy. To test the performance of the developed device, treadmill tests at various walking speeds and resistive loads are performed. Experimental results show that the lightweight harvester (weighing just 307 g) can generate 1.60 mW without increasing the human effort required for walking. This is expected to significantly promote the usage of biomechanical energy harvesters.
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Macro fiber composite-based energy harvester for human knee
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15 July 2019
Research Article|
July 16 2019
Macro fiber composite-based energy harvester for human knee
Fei Gao
;
Fei Gao
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong, China
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Gaoyu Liu
;
Gaoyu Liu
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong, China
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Brendon Lik-Hang Chung
;
Brendon Lik-Hang Chung
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong, China
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Hugo Hung-Tin Chan
;
Hugo Hung-Tin Chan
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong, China
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Wei-Hsin Liao
Wei-Hsin Liao
a)
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
, Shatin 999077, Hong Kong, China
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: whliao@cuhk.edu.hk
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: whliao@cuhk.edu.hk
Appl. Phys. Lett. 115, 033901 (2019)
Article history
Received:
April 04 2019
Accepted:
June 13 2019
Citation
Fei Gao, Gaoyu Liu, Brendon Lik-Hang Chung, Hugo Hung-Tin Chan, Wei-Hsin Liao; Macro fiber composite-based energy harvester for human knee. Appl. Phys. Lett. 15 July 2019; 115 (3): 033901. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5098962
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