Wearable medical and electronic devices demand a similarly wearable electrical power supply. Humanbased piezoelectric energy harvesters may be the solution, but the mismatch between the typical frequencies of human activities and the optimal operating frequencies of piezoelectric generators calls for the implementation of a frequency up-conversion technique. A rotary piezoelectric energy harves...

Numerical and experimental investigations of broadband random vibrational energy harvesting using monostable and bistable piezoelectric cantilevers are presented along with relative performance comparisons. Simulations and experiments reveal that a linear-monostable energy harvester can outperform its bistable counterpart for very low and relatively high random excitation levels. The bistable c...

This paper describes the design, fabrication and characterization of Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) based piezoelectric energy harvester that scavenges energy from the movement of human limbs. It investigates the effect of a piezolaminated curvilinear shell structure on the power density of a wearable energy harvester through Finite Element Method (FEM) and experimental results. Curvilinear She...

This paper presents a wireless sensor node (WSN) system where an electromagnetic (EM) energy harvester is utilized for charging its rechargeable batteries while the system is operational. The capability and the performance of an in-house low-frequency EM energy harvester for charging rechargeable NiMH batteries were experimentally verified in comparison to a regular battery charger. Furthermore...

The collection of clean power from ambient vibrations is considered a promising method for energy harvesting. For the case of wheel rotation, the present study investigates the effectiveness of a piezoelectric energy harvester, with the application of stochastic resonance to optimize the efficiency of energy harvesting. It is hypothesized that when the wheel rotates at variable speeds, the ener...

Energy harvesting from human motion addresses the growing need for battery-free health and wellness sensors in wearable applications. The major obstacles to harvesting energy in such applications are low and random frequencies due to the nature of human motion. This paper presents a generalized rotational harvester model in 3 dimensions to determine the upper bound of power output from real wor...

In this paper, a new hybrid routing protocol is presented for low power Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The new system uses an integrated piezoelectric energy harvester to increase the network lifetime. Power dissipation is one of the most important factors affecting lifetime of a WSN. An innovative cluster head selection technique using Cuckoo optimization algorithm has been used in the desig...

In this work, we present an automatized, computationally efficient and stable compact modeling technique for a large-scale multiport model of MEMS based piezoelectric energy harvester. The method includes structure preserving model order reduction based on Krylov subspaces. We further demonstrate a cosimulation between the reduced harvester model and the power circuitry. Introduction MEMS (micr...

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of an electromagnetic MEMS energy harvester with ultra-broad operating bandwidth. The beam stretching induced nonlinear spring stiffness enables the resonance to extend from 65 Hz to 340 Hz and 400 Hz at accelerations of 0.5g and 1.0g, respectively. The ultra-wide bandwidth could benefit the harvester device for more efficient vib...

An attachable electromagnetic-energy-harvester driven wireless vibration-sensing system for monitoring milling-processes and cutter-wear/breakage-conditions is demonstrated. The system includes an electromagnetic energy harvester, three single-axis Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometers, a wireless chip module, and corresponding circuits. The harvester consisting of magnets with...