Development of a Miniature Water Turbine Powered by Human Weight during Walking

Abstract

Energy harvesting systems as an autonomous power supply for interconnected wearable devices have become increasingly important. The unobtrusive integration into clothing poses a great challenge to the feasible application of these harvesting devices. For systems worn on the lower body, a shoe-based energy harvester may offer the solution since the shoe offers a protected building space. This work presents the development of a water turbine system, which uses the human weight to cause water flows within the turbine. One reservoir (68 × 60 × 18 mm3) is attached on either side of the turbine (58 × 54 × 16 mm3). In a laboratory, the energy generated during one actuation of a reservoir was 3 mJ. During normal walking, with two separate systems, energies of 2.27 mJ and 2.26 mJ per step were achieved at a walking speed of roughly 4 km/h.