Energy Harvesting based Electromyography Analysis for Muscle Activity

Abstract

Energy is the fundamental part of life and there is great demand of using renewable energy sources. Energy can be harvested from human body movements using piezoelectric transducers. The energy wasted during walking and exercising can be converted into useful energy is considered in this paper. The proposed system consists of the piezoelectric transducers on which the muscle force is applied. The AC signal from piezoelectric transducers is converted to DC using bridge rectifier. Then the DC signal is boosted by a DC-DC boost converter and the energy is stored in a supercapacitor. Due to the fast discharging rate of supercapacitor, it is thereby discharged to a rechargeable battery. This can power up the Arduino and thereby the electromyography sensor which analyses the muscle activity. A mathematical model can be used determine the work-done by lifting some known weights and comparing with electromyographic value. Series-parallel combination of piezoelectric transducers provides more voltage and current. Amplitude variations while lifting different known weights are analyzed using electromyography sensors. Deviation of conceptual work-done and measured value is analyzed.