Energy Harvesting from Kinetics of Prosthetic Leg

A prosthetic applying energy harvesting system will benefit from economizing the space to be evacuated for bulky battery instead of smart and portable in situ rechargeable batteries. In addition, fibre reinforced composites for main-body material also take advantages of its strong and lightweight properties for portable usage. This paper demonstrates manufacturing of a smart composite prosthetic leg with energy harvesting capabilities and to investigate the power recovering performance of the carbon-fibre prosthetic. Tests of energy harvesting was based on a vibration shaker where a prosthetic mount by macro fibre composite (MFC) was attached on. Acceleration data collected in terms of running, walking, climbing and walking with weight in hand are utilized to stimulate MFC generating electric power. The results find that running gait recovered the most average power from 420 mW.