Energy Harvesting from an Artificial Bone

Abstract

An artificial bone that can harvest energy from human motion was proposed, designed, analyzed, fabricated, and tested. The proposed artificial bone was fabricated by a 3D printer. A piece of magnetostrictive material was embedded in the middle of the artificial bone as the energy harvesting component. When the artificial bone was compressed, the magnetostrictive material was also stressed, which caused a variation in the permeability, according to the Villari effect. The varied permeability led to a varied spatial magnetic field. The varied spatial magnetic field was acquired by a collecting coil, and was transmitted and stored as a kind of energy from the human motion. A theoretical analysis of the artificial bone was conducted to find factors that influence energy harvesting performance. Experimental tests of harvesting energy from the proposed artificial bone were carried out. The voltage output and its varying tendency in the artificial bone agreed with the theoretical analysis. The artificial bone prototype achieved a trust maximum voltage of 206 mV (peak-to-peak) and a trust maximum power of 0.1 mW.