Low frequency vibration energy harvesting from human motion using IPMC cantilever with electromagnectic transduction

Abstract

This research aims as a proof of concept for a vibration energy harvester using human motion as the energy source. Human motion consists of burst of low frequency vibrational kinetic energy. The high acceleration burst is usually 1. 5 to 2 g when the foot strikes the ground and an ionic polymer metallic composite (IPMC) can be used to harvest this energy via two methods. The first method is via the bending of the IPMC causing the mobile cations to move and produces an output voltage pulse, hence capacitive transduction. Secondly, the IPMC in a beam form that resonate at the low vibration frequency due to its relatively low Young's modulus can scavenge additional secondary energy via external electromagnetic transduction to supplement the primary harvested energy via the IPMC capacitive transduction.