Energy harvesting from human motion with piezo fibers for the body monitoring by MEMS sensors

Piezoelectric fibers composite materials can be effectively used as electro-mechanical transducers to harvest power from human body motion thanks to high flexibility and improved reliability compared to traditional piezoceramic sheets. In this work, the motions of elbow and knee joints are replicated with test bench at variable amplitudes and angular velocities to characterize a piezo fiber composite with polymeric matrix. The output power is compared with the electrical specifications of a simple wearable system for sensing human body parameters composed of MEMS accelerometer and temperature sensors.