Cost-effective test set-up for the real-time measurement of the triboelectric energy harvester

Abstract

Operational parameters, the force and the frequency of contact affect the triboelectric energy harvester output performance. There is a need for the precise control of input parameters and the real-time measurement of the output parameter to quantify the effect of operating parameters. In this paper, an in-house developed cost-effective experimental set-up (approximately $2600) is presented, enabling the variation in contact frequency and measures of the impact force, voltage and current in real-time. The percentage of uncertainty in the measurement of voltage, current and force are 1.63%, 1.29% and 1.83%, respectively. The proposed set-up can be used to perform a reliable performance analysis and comparison of the vertical contact-separation mode triboelectric energy harvesters by real-time measurement of input and output parameters with precise control of input parameters.