Broadband omnidirectional piezoelectric–electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester for self-charged environmental and biometric sensing from human motion

Abstract

Vibration induced by human motions features a wide frequency spectrum and spatiotemporal-variable directions. Yet, it is challenging to concurrently expand frequency bandwidth and achieve multidirectional capability for effectively human-induced biomechanical energy harvesting and biometrics sensing. In this paper, we report a piezoelectric–electromagnetic hybrid energy harvester with coupled vibrational stabilization and induced frequency-up rotational mechanisms for omnidirectional and broadband vibration energy harvesting. Experimental studies demonstrate the proposed hybrid energy harvester operates effectively over a wide excitation frequency range from 6.0 to 16.0 Hz with omnidirectional responses. The piezoelectric conversion unit can provide a maximum output power of 0.9 mW and the electromagnetic conversion unit’s maximum output power is 22.7 mW. The hybrid energy harvester satisfies the power requirements of different types of portable electronics and realizes various self-charged sensing electronics that are stimulated by human movement. Various types of human motion signals are detected by piezoelectric and electromagnetic units via machine learning techniques to realize self-powered motion monitoring. Compared with a single type of signal, the identification accuracy of the hybrid device is improved from 85.6% to 100%. The proposed energy harvester for self-powered sensing paves the way to green intelligent life such as health management, environmental monitoring and human-machine interaction.