Design and Performance Evaluation of an Elbow-Based Biomechanical Energy Harvester

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the feasibility of a biomechanical energy harvester in the elbow joint, demonstrating it can generate up to 0.16 watts using a gear and generator system during walking.

Contribution

It introduces a novel elbow-based biomechanical energy harvester design optimized for energy generation during human movement.

Findings

Generated up to 0.16 watts of power.

Elbow joint shows high potential for energy harvesting.

Feasibility confirmed for wearable energy harvesting devices.

Abstract

Carbon emissions have long been attributed to the increase in climate change. With the effects of climate change escalating in the past few years, there has been an increased effort to find green alternatives to power generation, which has been a major contributor to carbon emissions. One prominent way that has arisen is biomechanical energy, or harvesting energy based on natural human movement. This study will evaluate the feasibility of electric generation using a gear and generator-based biomechanical energy harvester in the elbow joint. The joint was chosen using kinetic arm analysis through MediaPipe, in which the elbow joint showed much higher angular velocity during walking, thus showing more potential as a place to construct the harvester. Leg joints were excluded to not obstruct daily movement. The gear and generator type was decided to maximize energy production in the elbow joint. The device was constructed using a gearbox and a generator. The results show that it generated as much as 0.16 watts using the optimal resistance. This demonstrates the feasibility of electric generation with an elbow joint gear and generator-type biomechanical energy harvester.