Efficient energy harvesting from human motion using wearable piezoelectric shell structures

This paper proposes and demonstrates an efficient energy harvesting scheme for general human motion by using piezoelectric shell structures. Although human motion is random and slow movement, fast transition of shell structure can convert mechanical energy into electrical energy efficiently. The shell structure was formed by attaching a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film on curved polymer film manufactured by heat treatment. The shell structure generates much higher output voltage compared with a flat structure. Fabric with embedded shell structure is used for wearing a harvester. We could obtain much higher output power from a slow motion of human elbow joint by using proposed shell structure.