ENERGY HARVESTING FROM PASSIVE HUMAN POWER USING

REVERSE ELECTROWETTING
Manoj J, Pavan S, Chinmay B
Abstract- Sustaining the power resource for autonomous
wireless and portable electronic devices is an important
issue. Ambient power sources, such as a replacement for
batteries, can minimize the maintenance and the cost of
operation by harvesting different forms of energy from the
potential energy sources. Researchers continue to build
high-energy-density batteries, but the amount of energy
available in the batteries is not only finite but also low,
limiting the lifetime of the system. Extended lifetime of
electronic devices is very important and also has more
advantages in systems with limited accessibility. This
research studies one form of ambient energy sources:
passive human power generated from a shoe/sneaker
insole when a person is walking or running and its
conversion and storage into usable electrical energy. Based
on source characteristics, electrical energy harvesting,
conversion, and storage circuits were designed, built, and
tested for low-power electronic applications.
I ndex Terms- Circuit Analysis, Circuit Design, Energy
Conservation, Energy Conversion, Energy Storage,
Piezoelectric Devices, Piezoelectric Materials,
Microfluidics.
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy harvesting is the conversion of ambient energy
into usable electrical energy. When compared to energy
stored in common storage elements, such as batteries
and capacitors, the environment represents a relatively
infinite source of available energy. Researchers have
been working on many projects to generate electricity
from human power, such as exploiting, cranking,
shaking, squeezing, spinning, pushing, pumping, and
pulling . Several types of flashlights were powered with
wind-up generators in the early 20th century . Later
versions of these devices, such as wind-up cell phone
chargers and radios, became available in the market.
The commercially available Freeplays wind-up radios
require 60 turns in one minute of cranking, which
allows for the storage of 500 Joules of energy in a
spring. The spring system drives a magnetic generator
and efficiently produces enough power for about an
hour of radio play.

Recently researchers have performed several studies in
alternative energy sources that could provide small
amounts of electricity to low-power electronic devices.
These studies focused on investing and obtaining power
from different energy sources such as vibration, light,
sound, airflow, heat, waste mechanical energy, and
temperature variations.

The problem of how to get energy from a persons foot
to other places on the body has not been suitably solved.
For a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag or other
wireless device worn on the shoe, the piezoelectric shoe
insert offers a good solution. However, the application
space for such devices is extremely limited, and, as
mentioned earlier, not very applicable to some of the
low-powered devices such as wireless sensor networks.
Active human power, which requires the user to
perform a specific power- generating motion, is
common and may be referred to separately as active
human-powered
systems .



II. HISTORY OF ENERGY HARVESTING

A.Mechanical type system dynamoelectric shoes:
A dynamoelectric shoe includes a shoe sole
having a heel portion formed with a compartment unit, a
pressure-operated electric generator unit provided inside
the compartment unit, and a rechargeable battery unit.
The electric generator unit includes a hollow base, a
pivot plate mounted pivotally in the hollow base, a
volute spring biasing the pivot plate so as to position
normally the latter in an upwardly inclining position, a
driving gear secured to the pivot plate, a unidirectional
gear set meshing with the driving gear, a speed
increasing gear set driven by the unidirectional gear set,
a press plate having a rear end mounted pivotally on an
open top of the hollow base and a front end provided
with a push plate which extends into the open top of the
hollow base and which abuts against the pivot plate, and
an alternator unit which has a rotor drive shaft that is
driven by the speed increasing gear set. The alternator
unit produces a voltage signal when the rotor drive shaft
rotates due to repeated application of pressure on the
press plate during use. The rechargeable battery unit is
connected electrically to the alternator unit and
includes an electrical socket mounted on the shoe sole.
The rechargeable battery unit is charged by the voltage
signal from the alternator unit. The Dynamoelectric
module which was used to harvest energy is shown in
fig.1.


Fig.1 Electrodynamometer Energy harvesting prototype

The object of the present invention is to provide a
dynamoelectric shoe which has a pressure-operated
electric generator unit that is relatively simple in
construction and that is capable of producing electricity
for operating an electrical device.
Accordingly, a dynamoelectric shoe of the present
invention comprises:
-a shoe sole having a heel portion formed with a
compartment unit;
-a pressure-operated electric generator unit provided
inside the compartment unit, the electric generator unit
including a hollow base with a longitudinal partition
plate provided therein, a pivot plate disposed in the
hollow base on one side of the partition plate, the pivot
plate having one end fixed to a shaft which extends
through the partition plate and which mounts pivotally
the pivot plate to the hollow base, a volute spring
having one end connected to the shaft and biasing the
shaft so as to position normally the pivot plate in an
upwardly inclining position, a driving gear secured on a
distal end of the shaft, a unidirectional gear set
including a smaller gear wheel which meshes with the
driving gear and a larger gear wheel, a speed increasing
gear set driven rotatably by the larger gear wheel of the
unidirectional gear set, a press plate having a rear end
that is mounted pivotally on an open top of the hollow
base and a front end that is provided with a downwardly
projecting push plate which has a distal end that extends
into the open top of the hollow base and that abuts
against the pivot plate, and an alternator unit which is
disposed in the hollow base and which has a rotor drive
shaft that is provided with a gear member which meshes
with the speed increasing gear set, the alternator unit
producing a voltage signal when the gear member
rotates due to repeated application of pressure on the
press plate during use; and a rechargeable battery unit
connected electrically to the alternator unit and
provided in the compartment unit of the hollow base,
the rechargeable battery unit including an electrical
socket mounted on the shoe sole and being charged by
the voltage signal from the alternator unit.
Preferably, the hollow base has a side panel opposite to
the partition plate and formed with an oval-shaped axle
hole. The unidirectional gear set further has a gear axle
with a first end mounted pivotally on the partition plate
and a second end extending into the oval-shaped axle
hole. The speed increasing gear set includes a smaller
gear wheel which is driven rotatably by the larger gear
wheel of the unidirectional gear set and a larger gear
wheel which meshes with the gear member of the
alternator unit.

Fig. showing the main part of EDH prototype

B. Piezo electric based power harvesting shoes:
The context in which we place our generator is
that of a sport sneaker. This type of shoe differs from
ordinary shoes in one important featureits energy
dissipating sole.
While walking in ordinary "hard" shoes, the foot is
rapidly decelerated from its relatively high downward
speed to zero velocity relative to the groundan action
that requires the application of relatively large and
sudden forces to the foot.


Fig. showing the incorporation of PZT crystal

Barring shock absorption in the feet, this can
be simply modelled as a sudden step in velocity; the
force applied to the foot to achieve this deceleration is
an impulse. This impulse causes the foot to decelerate
suddenly while the rest of the body is still moving. The
force that stops the rest of the bodys mass is
transmitted through the legs and compresses the knees
and other joints.
The function of the insole and midsole in the
sport sneaker is to work as a low-pass filter for this step
in velocity, reducing the amount of force applied to the
joints . This reduces any stress that the joints experience
and also reduces the incidence of sports injuries.
The result is that the force and displacement values over
time for the bottom and top of the midsole are not the
sameas in any passive filter, there is an energy loss in
the sole while it performs this filtering function. The
energy lost is in the higher harmonics of the step and is
dissipated through internal losses in the sole. When the
sole springs back after the step it does not exert as much
force as before, returning less energy than was put into
it, and it is this energy that we are trying to capture.
The energy obtained from the shoe is not free as the
harvested power grows, there is a noticeable additional
load as the shoe demands more energy to be put into it
while supplying less restoring force (somewhat like
walking on sand). This systems strive to make this
burden beneath notice, ideally loading the users stride
exactly as much as common sport shoes today.

Fig. showing the implementation of PZT crystal Energy
harvesting technique


C. Reverse Electrowetting type power harvesting
shoes:
In a classical electro wetting experiment liquid
spreading on the dielectric surface is facilitated by
electrically induced increase in the dielectric surface
wettability . The wettability change arises from the
extra electrostatic energy that is associated with the
electrically charged liquid solid interface, which is
formed when the voltage from an external source is
applied between the conductive droplet and the
dielectric-film-coated electrode. It can be shown that
this extra electrostatic energy and the liquid solid
interfacial energy
sl
can be combined to produce
Lippmann s effective solid liquid interfacial energy
sl eff = s l C V 2 / 2, where V is the voltage applied
between the conductive droplet and the dielectric-film-
coated electrode and C is the capacitance per unit area
of the liquid solid interface. On inserting Lippmann
s effective interfacial tension into classical Youngs
equation for the droplet contact angle , one obtains the
electro wetting equation :
cos = cos 0 + C V2 / 2 l v , where

lv
is the liquid-vapor interfacial energy and
0
is the
initial droplet contact angle where no voltage is applied.
The electro wetting equation predicts that the droplet
contact angle should decrease with the increase in the
applied voltage. As a result the droplet tends to spread
and position itself in such a way as to maximize its
overlap with the dielectric-film-coated electrode. Thus,
in a classical electro wetting experiment, the electrical
energy is converted into mechanical energy of liquid
motion through electrically induced change in the
dielectric surface wettability. Here we employ a new
approach that allows one to run this process in reverse,
converting mechanical energy of liquid motion into
electrical current, thus achieving reverse electro wetting
(REWOD). Because REWOD is a novel phenomenon,
which had not been previously described in the
literature, a detailed description of the physics of the
REWOD process is lacking.

In its essence, the REWOD process is
conceptually straight forward. The droplet and the
electrode are connected to the external electrical circuit
that provides a constant bias voltage between the
droplet and the electrode. External mechanical actuation
is used to move the droplet in such a way as to force a
decrease of its overlap with the dielectric-fi lm-coated
electrode. This results in the decrease of the total charge
that can be maintained at the droplet liquid solid
interface. The excessive electrical charge then flows
back through the electrical circuit that connects the
droplet and the electrode, generating electrical current
that can be used to power the external load. In the
REWOD process, fluidic actuation can be accomplished
in a number of different geometries, such as out-of-
plane vibration, in-plane shear and in-channel droplet
motion. The electrical energy produced per unit area of
the composite liquid / thin-fi lm-dielectric / solid
interface during the REWOD process is directly
proportional to the interfacial electrical capacitance and
to the square of the voltage applied across the interface.
Surface charge trapping is another phenomenon that can
substantially reduce energy production during the
REWOD process. In dielectric films with thicknesses
of only a few tens of nanometers, even a few volts can
result in very strong electric fields on the scale of 10
6
V
cm
1
. As a result, electrical carrier injection and
subsequent charge trapping in the dielectric film often
take place . This essentially causes immobilization of
some portion of the electrical charge in the dielectric,
impeding charge collection during the dewetting
process and, thus, reducing energy generation
efficiency.


III.REWOD ENERGY GENERATION
The dependence of the REWOD energy
generation on the wettingdewetting frequency and the
number of droplets was investigated using sliding-plates
actuation. In the figure shown, the dependence of the
average energy density per one wettingdewetting cycle
is plotted as a function of wetting dewetting frequency
for five different voltages. The energy produced per
cycle increased with the frequency for all five voltages.
As discussed below, these experimental data can be
collapsed onto a single master curve by an appropriate
scaling as shown in Figure.

Devices with even larger number of droplets
can be readily fabricated by exploiting a natural synergy
between the REWOD process and droplet-based
microfluidics . Indeed, parallel actuation of a large
number of micro-droplets required for scaling-up of the
generated power is routinely performed in channel
based droplet macrofluidic devices, where thousands of
droplets can be synchronously moved in microchannels
with a great degree of control over their position and
velocity. Combination of REWOD and droplet
microfluids offers important advantages such as easy
scaling, very flexible force displacement relationship,
and extremely simple device design with no moving
solid parts. Microfluidic power generators based on the
REWOD process can take advantage of many
previously inaccessible environmental mechanical
energy sources. Two specific examples will be
illustrated:
Energy harvesting from human locomotion and high
power harvesting of mechanical vibration energy.
The following simple estimate illustrates the power that
can be produced by a footwear-embedded microfluidic
harvester using the REWOD process. Let us consider
2m long train of 1,000 conductive droplets, each 1 mm
long separated by 1 mm spacers and positioned inside
1-mm diameter circular cross-section channel with the
total length of 4 m. The total area covered by such
channel is about 40 cm
2
or less than of the area of a
typical human footprint. The total volume of the liquid
contained in the channel would be about 4 ml, which
makes it readily compatible with footwear. Assuming
that the heel area is about 20 cm square, we estimate
that the total midsole compression required to achieve 4
ml volume displacement is around 2 mm. Such a
displacement is well below the level that might affect
the persons gait.
The average power per foot can exceed 2W for
bias voltages in excess of 35 V and 10 W for bias
voltages in excess of 75 V. The bias voltage can be
substantially reduced by increasing the capacitance of
the dielectric film stack. However, it is important to
mention, that even at its current level the bias voltage
does not present a substantial practical issue. A wide
range of commercially available DCDC boost
converter components can be used to convert the 3.7 V
output of standard Li-ion batteries to the required bias
voltage. Thus, this example clearly supports the use of
footwear designed for high-power-energy harvesting
based on reverse electrowetting.


CIRCUIT DIAGRAM:
The circuit used to investigate energy
generation includes a source of a bias voltage V , a
resistive load R , and a variable capacitor C (the
REWOD unit, which represents a harvester set-up, that
is, a set of droplets in contact with the electrode grid).

IV. ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND OPTIMIZATION
A wide range of dielectric liquids (which were
used in the microchannel actuation set-up) from alkanes
(decane, dodecane and hexadecane) to silicone oils
could be used. A number of conducting liquids such as
aqueous salt solutions, molten ionic salts, and liquid
metals have shown the REWOD phenomenon. Liquid
metals proved to be the best exhibiting high electrical
conductivity, higher surface tension, and low vapor
pressure. Using electrons for charge carriers shows
significant improvement in energy production. Higher
surface tension is desirable, because the energy per unit
area increases as surface tension increases. There are
only two choices for liquid metals that remain liquid
at room temperature: Hg and Ga / In / Sn alloy or
Galinstan .
The next important consideration was to
develop a dielectric film optimized for energy
production. The electrode capacitance can be increased
by using a higher-k material and by decreasing the
dielectric layer thickness. Simple calculations indicate
that if high capacitance on the order of 102Nf/cm
2
is to
be achieved at lower working voltages ( < 100 V),
dielectric film thicknesses are limited to several 100
nm, but, as previously noted, field strengths are quite
high causing the film to be susceptible to breakdown.
We ultimately determined that Ta
2
O
5
, possessing a
relatively high k of 25, demonstrated the best resistance
to dielectric breakdown. The Ta
2
O
5
films were produced
by anodic oxidation at room temperature of sputtered
deposited Ta films on quartz substrates. Precise Ta
2
O
5
thickness could be controlled by adjusting the anodizing
voltage.
Although not completely understood
theoretically, we found that charge trapping at the
interface between the liquid and the dielectric surface
had a dominant role in limiting energy production. The
amount of charge trapped at the interface drastically
reduces the amount of energy available for use. We
investigated numerous dielectrics not only for their
breakdown characteristics but also for their tendency to
trap charge. As a result, we discovered that all oxide
thin films, which we investigated, were poor at energy
production. Inorganic fluorides were better, but
fluoropolymers or Tefl on-like films were by far the
best. The fluoropolymer films were produced by spin
coating with Cytop 6 and then by curing in N
2
at 250
C for 2 h. Although the Cytop films showed the least
amount of charge trapping, they demonstrated
unreliable breakdown characteristics. Thus, our best
results for energy production were obtained using a
dielectric composite of Cytop deposited on Ta2O5 .
.

V.COMPARISION BETWEEN THE ABOVE
MENTIONED TECHNOLOGIES:
Though the mechanical type power harvesting
shoes has a straight forward implementation approach,
it has a few limitations as listed below:
*size of the shoe sole increases, gait of the person may
alter slightly.
*couldnt be implemented in all the styles of shoes and
sandals available.
*difficulty in replacement of worn out parts.
*they have a limited life cycle(about 10,000 steps).
The piezoelectric type implementation is
definitely a improvisation over the mechanical ones in
terms of durability, complexity and level of comfort to
the user, but they too have a few disadvantages:
*mechanical stress upon the crystal eventually wears it
off.
*study says the efficiency of the crystal is lost over a
period of time i.e., to generate the same amount of
energy more of pressure has to be applied on the crystal.
The electro-wetting type of implementation of the
same prototype definitely has an edge over the other
types in the following ways
*its very space efficient.
*gait of the person isnt affected.
*practically has an infinite lifetime.
*efficiency doesnt decrease upon usage.
*Versatality, it could be used in many different forms
which is explained in the next section.
VI.FUTURE SCOPE OF
ELECROWETTING TECHNOLOGY:
1.Shoes which generate considerable amount of energy
on walking, on introduction to the market could
potentially revolutionise the flourishing thoughts about
low power energy harvesting.
2.It could be used in different fields where independent
power source is required at the expense of muscular
energy and in emergency situations.
Eg :mining, cave explorations, military applications etc.
3.The same technology could be used in different forms
to harvest energy from different sources producing
linear or sheer stress like in
*Buildings.
*hanging bridges.
*tyres of vehicles.
*wind shields of fast moving cars.


Fig. showing the schematics of the device practically used;
top view of the droplets overlapping one of the electrodes.





The final prototype

VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Papyrus 5.0 for creating an opportunity to
research on reverse electrowetting technology, exhibit
our views and ideas about the same. Google and other
tech websites have been our research labs and thereby
have helped us in bringing out our ideas. Reverse
electrowetting technology has made us realize how
effectively a human passive power can be extracted out
at higher efficiency. Our sincere thanks to the scientists
who have worked on developing microfluidics using
nanotechnology, which inturn was responsible for the
rise of Reverse electrowetting Tech. We would also like
to appreciate the effort, which all our co-contestants
have put up in bringing out tech papers worth reading.
REFERENCES
1) www.wikipedia.com/reverseelectrowetting
2) http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v2/n8
/full/ncomms1454
3) http://www.ieee.org/
4) Book: Using Passive Human power
-by Faruk Yildiz, Houston University
5) Book: Basics of Electrodynamics
-by Shi Hiu Chen, Taiwan University