Dielectric polymer: scavenging energy from human motion

Claire Jean-Mistral; Skandar Basrour; Jean-Jacques Chaillout

doi:10.1117/12.776879

10 April 2008 Dielectric polymer: scavenging energy from human motion

Claire Jean-Mistral, Skandar Basrour, Jean-Jacques Chaillout

Proceedings Volume 6927, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008; 692716 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.776879
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2008, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

More and more sensors are embedded in human body for medical applications, for sport. The short lifetime of the batteries, available on the market, reveals a real problem of autonomy of these systems. A promising alternative is to scavenge the ambient energy such as the mechanical one. Up to now, few scavenging structures have operating frequencies compatible with ambient one. And, most of the developed structures are rigid and use vibration as mechanical source. For these reasons, we developed a scavenger that operates in a large frequency spectrum from quasi-static to dynamic range. This generator is fully flexible, light and does not hamper the human motion. Thus, we report in this paper an analytical model for dielectric generator with news electrical and mechanical characterization, and the development of an innovating application: scavenging energy from human motion. The generator is located on the knee and design to scavenge 0.1mJ per scavenging cycle at a frequency of 1Hz, enough to supply a low consumption system and with a poling voltage as low as possible to facilitate the power management. Our first prototype is a membrane with an area of 5*3cm and 31µm in thickness which scavenge 0.1mJ under 170V at constant charge Q.

Citation Download Citation

Claire Jean-Mistral, Skandar Basrour, and Jean-Jacques Chaillout "Dielectric polymer: scavenging energy from human motion", Proc. SPIE 6927, Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2008, 692716 (10 April 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.776879

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