Footstep Energy Harvesting with the Magnetostrictive Fiber Integrated Shoes

Abstract

Wearable energy harvesting devices attract attention as the devices provide electrical power without inhibiting user mobility and independence. While the piezoelectric materials integrated shoes have been considered as wearable energy harvesting devices for a long time, they can lose their energy harvesting performance after being used several times due to their brittleness. In this study, we focused on Fe–Co magnetostrictive materials and fabricated Fe–Co magnetostrictive fiber integrated shoes. We revealed that Fe–Co magnetostrictive fiber integrated shoes are capable of generating 1.2 µJ from 1000 steps of usual walking by the Villari (inverse magnetostrictive) effect. It seems that the output energy is dependent on user habit on ambulation, not on their weight. From both a mechanical and functional point of view, Fe–Co magnetostrictive fiber integrated shoes demonstrated stable energy harvesting performance after being used many times. It is likely that Fe–Co magnetostrictive fiber integrated shoes are available as sustainable and wearable energy harvesting devices.

Fabrication, Modeling and Characterization of Magnetostrictive Short Fiber Composites

“…Recently, Yang et al [15] fabricated 1-3 metal-matrix Fe-Co/Al alloy composites with a promising capacity in high-temperature applications and examined their microstructure and energy-harvesting properties. Kurita et al [16] developed magnetostrictive Fe-Co-fiber-integrated shoes and measured the output power and energy of the footstep energy-harvesting during ambulation activities. They showed that the output power and energy depend on the user's habit of ambulation, not on their weight.…”

Recent Progress in Application‐Oriented Self‐Powered Microelectronics

“…[394] Many researchers have developed energy harvesters embedded in shoes to harvest energy from foot movements, which can be classified into electromagnetic, [381] piezoelectric, [395] triboelectric, [288] and magnetostrictive. [81] In the process of human walking, the pressure on the soles of the feet changes periodically, which is a reusable energy source. Jeong et al [396] designed a piezoelectric energy harvester to power LED shoes.…”

“…[75,76] Moreover, mechanical energy can be converted into electrical energy through various mechanisms, such as piezoelectric, [77] triboelectric, [78] electromagnetic, [79] electrostatic, [80] and magnetostrictive. [81] In recent years, wearable mechanical energy harvesting devices integrated into the human body have been extensively studied. These wearable mechanical energy harvesters can capture energy from walking, running, jumping, joint movements, and blinking.…”

Adaptive and Robust Operation with Active Fuzzy Harvester under Nonstationary and Random Disturbance Conditions

“…A self-sensing harvester, which measures temperature [ 3 ], displacement [ 4 ], and body motions [ 5 ] without the use of specific sensors and batteries, has also been proposed for advanced applications. Transducers for vibration energy harvesting include tuned mass dampers [ 6 , 7 ], magneto-rheological elastomers [ 8 ], electromagnetic devices [ 9 , 10 ], electrets [ 11 , 12 ], magnetostrictive elements [ 13 , 14 , 15 ], and piezoelectric elements [ 16 ]. Piezoelectric transducers convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and vice versa as direct and inverse piezoelectric effects [ 17 , 18 ].…”