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Abstract
In this study, a self-charged power bank integrated with an energy harvester was developed to harness human biomecha-
nical energy and sustainably recharge a power bank. In the energy harvester, a spring–mass damping system is used to
transform the human body’s movement during walking into the rotation of a gear train and drive rotary generators to
produce electricity to recharge the battery through a rectifying circuit. A mathematical model was built to examine the
power output of the energy harvester under different excitation conditions. A prototype was built to test the perfor-
mances of the harvester, and experiments on the prototype fixed on the ankle, wrist, and torso were conducted, which
indicated that the measured power output was 0.35 W, 0.16 W, and 10 mW, respectively, when testers walked at 2.0 m/s
(the circular frequency of foot step is about 14.5 rad/s). The experiments indicate that a higher walking velocity as well
as excitation amplitude and frequency could result in higher output power.
Keywords
Energy harvesting, self-charging, human motion
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2 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
A total of 900 calories can be extracted when just 1 g of of the harvester as well as provides the mathematical
fat is consumed.3 Thus, even if a small fraction of this model and analysis of the harvester, section ‘‘Prototype
energy could be utilized, the human body would design and experiments’’ introduces the prototype
become an enormous and sustainable energy source. In design and the experiments to validate the theoretical
fact, a few methods extracting energy from human analysis, and section ‘‘Conclusion’’ draws the conclu-
motion or body heat have already been proposed. Kim sions from this study.
et al.4 reported that a maximum of 224 nW of power
could be obtained using a thermoelectric element, while
Maisam et al.5 used a thermoelectric converter to har- Patterns of human motion
vest 20 mW of electricity power. In addition to harnes-
When a human walks normally, the motion pattern
sing energy from body heat, a few researchers have
appears to be periodic. However, the trunk, upper
investigated harvesting impact energy from a foot
limbs, and lower limbs do not share a unique motion
strike6–9 using micro-generators or piezoelectric materi-
pattern. Thus, the motion patterns of the different
als in the shoe sole. When a human walks, the trail of
parts will be demonstrated.
the torso (or mass point of body) relative to the ground
The typical human motion in normal walking is
appears approximately as a sine wave instead of a
highly complex. Figure 1 provides the human motion
straight line.10 This motion pattern of the torso pro-
and posture during a normal walking cycle. The motion
vides a possibility of converting considerable kinetic
of the body’s center of mass (COM), which is nearly at
energy of the human body to electrical power. A few
the same position as the hip, is the basis of the human
energy-harvesting devices based on a backpack have
movement.11,14 In bipedal human locomotion, the
been developed to harvest the kinetic energy of the
torso motion. For example, Rome et al.11 used a trunk displacement is achieved by lower limb move-
suspended-load backpack to convert human vertical ments that primarily result in the forward displacement
movement and generated 7.4 W of electric power. Xie of the COM. As indicated by the dashed line in
and Cai12,13 developed a suspended backpack harvester Figure 1, the body’s COM moves forward and down-
to harness the mechanical energy of the human ward simultaneously with each step, and it subse-
body, which increased the energy-harvesting efficiency quently moves upward when the body weight is
by 40%. transferred from one leg to the other.15 Therefore, dur-
The above-mentioned harvesting devices for human ing a normal walking cycle, the human trunk moves up
kinetic energy were designed for a special type of and down relative to the mean forward velocity, and it
human motion or a designated human body joint; also displays speed fluctuations in the direction of pro-
therefore, they cannot be utilized for daily use. Using a gression. Additionally, the motion of the human trunk
mobile power bank as an oscillating mass, a new can be characterized by a sinusoidal function, in which
energy-harvesting device was proposed to harness the amplitude and frequency are dependent on both the
human kinetic energy and sustainably recharge the walking velocity and the human body dimensions. As
power bank. This energy-harvesting device consists of a depicted in Figure 2, the walking model can be approxi-
battery in a power bank, which serves as the oscillating mated as an inverted pendulum, and the hip displace-
mass, spring components, gear train to speed up the ment in the vertical direction during walking, which is
motion, generator for mechanical–electrical energy con- of interest for energy harvesting, can be expressed as a
version, and circuit interface to regulate the electricity sinusoidal function of the walking frequency v with an
from the generator. The battery and spring components amplitude Y as follows16
constitute the mass–spring oscillating mechanism,
which is used to harness human motion. During human y1 = Y1 sinðvtÞ ð1Þ
walking, the oscillating mechanism is driven by an
As a result of the periodical movement in human
external vibration, and the ‘‘captured’’ motion is trans-
torsion in the vertical direction, the energy harvester
ferred to the gear train to increase the frequency and
rotate the generator. The electricity produced by the
generator later recharges the battery after the rectifier
and the regulator. The proposed energy-harvesting
device with a mobile power bank can be used for daily
use, which could spontaneously work anywhere if car-
ried on any part of the human body, including the torso
and the upper and lower limbs.
This report is organized as follows: section ‘‘Patterns
of human motion’’ introduces the pattern of human Figure 1. Pattern of human motion and posture in a typical
motion, section ‘‘Energy harvester’’ describes the design walking cycle.
Xie et al. 3
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of torso motion pattern during Figure 3. Circular frequency and vertical magnitude of normal
normal human walking. walking in terms of walking velocity.
can be placed on the human trunk to harvest this reci- The motion of the upper limbs, which is character-
procating motion. Figure 2 depicts the schematic dia- ized as an out-of-phase swing, is considerably simpler
gram of the human trunk motion and the energy than that of the trunk. When the right leg and torso
harvester on the torso. Based on Figure 2, the maxi- move forward, the left arm moves forward and vice
mum amplitude of the vertical displacement during versa for the opposing leg and arm. The upper limbs
walking is Y1 = R(1 cos umax ), which is related to the can be modeled as a single simple pendulum that has
leg length R and the maximum swing angle umax in a its mass concentrated at its COM. Assuming that the
phase. Furthermore, the maximum amplitude can be angle a of the swinging arm is a sinusoidal function, as
corrected for pelvis rotation, knee flexion, foot length, depicted in Figure 4(b), the angular displacement of
and other factors, after which the amplitude of displa- any position on the arm relative to the mean forward
cement for the torso can be given as follows17 velocity, which is practical for energy harvesting, can
be written as follows
0
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 1
2
R 0:963pV A a = A sinðvtÞ ðradÞ ð4aÞ
Y1 = @1 1 0:0157R ðmÞ
2 Rv
The maximum amplitude swinging angle is A, and
ð2Þ the upper limb shares the same walking frequency v
with the torso. However, different positions of the arm
Additionally, the circular frequency value for walk- result in different displacements along the circular arc,
ing can be empirically approximated as a function of which accounts for the different excitation magnitudes
the walking velocity and the leg length as follows18 of the oscillating system. Thus, both sides of equation
0:57 (4a) are multiplied by L1, which represents the distance
V between a certain position where the harvester is
v = 9:45 ðrad=sÞ ð3Þ
R mounted and the axle of the shoulder joint, and equa-
tion (4a) can then be rewritten as follows
Based on the above equations, the vertical displace-
ment of the torso can be simply approximated as a y2 = Y2 sinðvtÞ ðmÞ ð4bÞ
function of the walking velocity and the leg length.
Statistical data19 have demonstrated that the leg length where y2 = a L1 and Y2 = A L1 represent the angular
accounts for 53% of a person’s stature. Assuming that displacement and the amplitude, respectively.
the walking velocity is approximately 4–7 km/h, or During normal walking, gait cycles are repeated,
approximately 1–2 m/s, during normal walking, the including the swing phase and the stance phase for each
walking frequency and the vertical magnitude can be foot. The right foot’s initial contact with the ground
obtained with respect to the walking velocity. Figure 3 occurs while the left foot is still on the ground, that is,
illustrates the frequency and the magnitude of vibration there is a period of double support between the initial
in the human trunk with respect to the walking velo- contact on the right foot and the toe of the left foot
city. This figure indicates that the relationship between leaving the ground (toe-off). During the swing phase of
the walking velocity and the frequency is nearly linear, the left foot, only the right foot remains on the ground,
which is similar to the relationship between the walking providing a period of right leg singular support that
velocity and the magnitude. ends with the initial ground contact by the left foot.
4 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Figure 4. (a) Harvester mounted on the human hand and lower limbs, (b) schematic model of the upper limbs during normal
walking, and (c) schematic model of the lower limbs during normal walking.
Then, there is another period of double support until equation (equations (1), (4), and (5)). For the sake of
toe-off occurs on the right foot. The left leg singular convenience, a general expression for these three
support period corresponds to the right swing phase. motion patterns can be given as follows
The cycle ends with the next initial ground contact by
the right foot. Although the lower limb motion pattern y = Y sinðvtÞ ð6Þ
is complex, it could still be seen as a single simple pen- 8
< Y1 when y = y1
dulum swinging as a sinusoidal curve, as shown in
where Y = Y2 when y = y2 .
Figure 4(c). Similarly, the angular displacement relative :
Y3 when y = y3
to the mean forward velocity can be expressed as
follows Energy harvester
b = B sinðvtÞ ðradÞ ð5aÞ Working principle
where B is the maximum amplitude swinging angle. The energy harvester, which is designed to embed into
The lower limb has the same walking frequency v as a typical power bank, is schematically depicted in
the other two parts. Similar to the upper limbs, the dis- Figure 5. The power bank consists of a dynamic sys-
tance between the installation position of the harvester tem, including chargeable battery, springs, micro-gen-
and the hip joint should also be considered. Therefore, erator, planetary gear train, and circuit, and a static
equation (5) can be rewritten as follows structure, which includes a gear rack and a container
shell. The battery and springs constitute an oscillating
y3 = Y3 sinðvtÞ ðmÞ ð5bÞ system, which can be excited by the external vibration
of the human body, and there is a relative linear motion
where y3 = b L2 , Y3 = B L2 , and L2 is the distance between the battery and the container shell. Because
between the installation position of the harvester and the gear rack is attached to the container shell, the lin-
the hip joint. ear motion of the battery is transformed into rotation
As discussed above, despite the different motion pat- of the gear train. The gear train accelerates the rotation
terns, the trails of the torso, upper limbs, and lower and drives the generator to produce electricity. Because
limbs could be expressed as a similar simplified the human motion is irregular, the generated voltage
Xie et al. 5
m2
U = Y qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð10Þ
2 2 2
Figure 5. Schematic diagram of the energy harvester. ð1 m Þ + ð2zmÞ
2zm
u = tan1 ð11Þ
1 m2
from the generator is also irregular; therefore, rectifier pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
and regulator circuit of the harvester is necessary to where vn = k=M represents the natural frequency of
regulate the electricity and store it in the battery. the oscillating harvester, m = v=vn is the frequency
In this energy harvester, as many components as ratio, and z = C=(2Mvn ) is based on the total damping
possible are designed to be the oscillating mass so that ratio of the system.
the maximum amount of kinetic energy can be In order to capture as much human motion as possi-
absorbed by the oscillating system. The battery, gear ble, the resonant frequency of the spring–mass oscillat-
train, generator, and circuit are assembled in the con- ing system in the harvester should be matched with
tainer, which can oscillate together with the springs. To human walking frequency. When a person walks in dif-
keep the oscillation stable, there is a track groove to fit ferent velocities, the circular frequency is variable, as
with the guiding rail attached on the shell; furthermore, shown in Figure 3. Assume that the average circular
the guiding rail is made of polytetrafluoroethylene frequency of human normal walking is v h and then the
(PTFE) to reduce friction during oscillation. total stiffness of the springs should be kd = v 2h M, where
M is the damping mass. In the proposed harvester,
there are four identical springs assembled in parallel, so
Dynamic model the stiffness of each spring is kd =4 = v 2h M=4.
When the energy harvester works on the human body, The micro-generator typically achieves a reasonable
the oscillating system can be considered approximately efficiency when it gains high speed. However, the
to be a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) oscillating excited velocity of the external motion is extremely low;
system, where the damping mass is M, and the total therefore, an acceleration gear train is necessary to
stiffness coefficient of the springs is K. Then, the gov- speed up the low-speed human motion. Figure 6 illus-
erning equation can be expressed as follows trates the schematic diagram of the transmission in the
harvester. The linear motion is first transformed into
M ð€z €yÞ + C ðz_ y_ Þ + K ðz yÞ = M€y ð7Þ rotation by the rack gear, and the pinion gear Z0 then
transmits the rotation to its coaxial gear train. The
where y is the function of the external excitation and C rotator of the generator is then accelerated by the gear
is the total damping coefficient of the oscillating sys- train. The pinion gear has the same module m as the
tem, which consists of the mechanical damping coeffi- rack gear. The total gear ratio of the planetary gear
cient Cm due to the friction among the components and train is i, and assuming that the rack gear moves syn-
the electrical coupling coefficient Ce , which represents chronously with the outer shell relative to the damping
the ability of the energy conversion, that is, how much mass at a velocity u, _ the angular velocity of the pinion
6 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
gear Z0 is u_ 0 = 2u=(mZ
_ _
0 ). Thus, the angular velocity uG
of the generator can be given as follows
2
u_ G = i u_ ðrad=sÞ ð12Þ Figure 7. Average input power versus walking frequency and
mZ0
amplitude, where M = 0:1 kg, vn = 9:42 rad=s, and z = 0:5.
Figure 9. Experimental setup and harvester prototype: (a) prototype mounted on the upper limb, (b) prototype mounted on the
lower limb, (c) prototype mounted on the torso, and (d) front view of the prototype.
walking velocity. In the harvester prototype, the total container of the energy harvester (i.e. the oscillator)
spring stiffness was set to be approximately 40 N/m so was pulled by a displacement and then released, and
that it could match the total oscillating mass and work the oscillating displacement curve was recorded.
properly. The mechanical damping coefficient was esti- Finally, the free decay curve of the damped oscillation
mated by experiments. First, set to the open circuit, the curve was fitted to obtain damping ratio in MATLAB
8 Advances in Mechanical Engineering
Conclusion
In this work, an energy harvester integrated with a
power bank was developed to harness human biome-
chanical energy, convert it into electricity, and recharge
the battery of the power bank. A mass–spring–damping
oscillating system, where the weight of the battery acted
as a damping mass, was used to capture human motion
during walking, and a gear train was used to convert
the linear motion into rotation and drive the micro-
Figure 12. Average output power with respect to the walking generator to produce electricity. A mathematical model
velocity when the energy harvester was fixed on (a) ankle, (b)
of the energy harvester was built to analyze and opti-
wrist, and (c) torso.
mize the power output. An energy harvester prototype
was built to test the power output. Experiments on the
ankle, wrist, and torso were conducted, which indicated
The experiments performed on the treadmill were
that the measured power to charge a battery was
conducted to measure the power output with respect to
0.35 W, 0.16 W, and 10 mW, respectively, and the
the changing walking velocities. Figure 12 provides the
results indicated that the experimental data agreed well
experimental results of the power output for the energy
with the simulation. The self-charged power bank by
harvester for walking velocities between 1.4 and 2.0 m/s
energy harvesting could effectively improve the
when fixed at different positions, where the simulated
usability.
data are used as a reference. Each walking velocity
tuned by the treadmill was repeated 10 times, and the
average and standard error were then calculated. Declaration of conflicting interests
Different walking velocities could result in different The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with
walking frequencies and magnitudes for an individual respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
participant; therefore, the power output from the article.
energy harvester changed accordingly. This figure indi-
cates that the experimental data were close to the simu- Funding
lated data, and they followed the same trend, indicating
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
that the theoretical study was correct; however, there
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
were a few differences between the experimental and
article: This work was supported by the National Natural
the simulated data. When the prototype harvester was Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51575188), the
fixed on the ankle, the measured average electrical Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
power to charge the battery was approximately 0.35 W (grant no. 2014ZZ0020), and the Industrial Technology
at a velocity of 2.0 m/s, as indicated in Figure 12(a). Research and Development Funds of Guangdong Province
Similarly, in the case of the harvester fixed on the wrist (grant no. 2015A020214007).
10 Advances in Mechanical Engineering