In last ten years, a lot of researchers have begun to look into obtaining electricity from the movement between human and their backpack that occurs during walking. In this paper, an innovative, elastically-suspended backpack with mechanical motion rectifier (MMR) based energy harvester is developed to generate electricity with high efficiency and reliability. Up to 28 Watts peak electrical power can be produced by the MMR based backpack energy harvester. A dynamic model for the system is presented along with experimental results. Three dual mass models for different distinct harvesters: pure viscous, non MMR, and MMR, are proposed, and a comparison in the output power and human comfort between the three models is discussed.

Date Published: 15 April 2016
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 9799, Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2016, 97991K (15 April 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2219308

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9799:
Active and Passive Smart Structures and Integrated Systems 2016
Gyuhae Park, Editor(s)