Design and development of a wearable energy generation device

• Main Author: Ng, Gim Hong.
• Other Authors: Chua Soon Keong, Patrick
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Alternative, renewable energy sources; DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15739
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Wearable energy generation device will be an ideal invention where people can obtain electricity anytime and anywhere. When a human walks, chemical energy in the body is converted to mechanical energy. The concept of the design is to convert this mechanical energy into electrical energy to power up small portable electronic devices like handphones, laptop computers, torch lights, etc. In this project, the author has gone through the selection of the best voltage. The evaluation on the existing voltage sources has been achieved by using the evaluation criterion like size and weight, easy to use, efficiency, durability, and also cost. The device is to be wearable, light weight and well hidden. So the size and weight criteria occupies the heaviest weight rate throughout the evaluation. Piezoelectricity is chosen for the device design in this project. The design idea is to place piezoelectric material inside the shoes, so that when a human walks, mechanical stress is applied to the piezoelectric material to generate electricity. The project is continued with designing a circuit to change and store the electrical energy generated by piezoelectric material, to a desired direct current (DC) signal which can be used to power up electronic devices. Piezoelectric diaphragm is used for the design. Experiments are carried out to analyze the signal generated by piezoelectric diaphragm for different circuit design. Rectifier circuit and filter circuit are designed to produce DC signal in order to light up an LED. Although the voltage value is high, the current value is very small. The design need to be carried out to amplify the current.