Pramana Research Journal ISSN NO: 2249-2976

Design of footstep power generation using piezoelectric

sensors
P.Venkatesh, M.Satya kalyan varma, M.Sahil, P.Sai ajay
UG Student, EEE Dept, Pragati Engineering College (autonomous), Surampalem, Andhra
Pradesh.
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract
In this paper, we have presented the design of power generation using footstep based on
available piezoelectric sensors. Human race requires energy at very rapid rate for their
living and wellbeing from the time of their arrival on this planet, because of this reason
power resources have been worn out and enervated. Proposal for the employment and
application of extravagant energy in foots of human is very much to the purpose for
extremely populated nations like China and India. Where the streets, rail and bus station
are over peopled and packed like sardines moving around the clock. So, using such
concept the power can be availed and deployed by converting mechanical energy to
electrical energy.
Index Terms— Piezoelectric sensors, Diode, Inverter

1. Introduction
At present, electricity is the necessary part of the human life in daily activities and
demand of electricity is increasing exponentially day by day. Modern technology
requires a vast amount of power in the form of electricity for its different operations.
Worldwide electricity generation contributes maximum in pollution as the single largest
source. Also, exponential increasing demands of electricity creating a large gap between
demand and supply. Due to this, researcher and innovators working in the field of energy
harvesting are trying to explore the alternate sources of energy and its feasible use.
Accordingly, main objective of present day technology is to invent and provide a
pollution free method of electricity from the growing human population that does not
negatively impact the environment. In this technology, piezoelectric effect is used to
generate the electricity. When pressure and strain are applied to a material which shows
piezoelectric effect have the capability to build up an electrical charge. Piezoelectric
sensors generate electricity when we apply pressure on the sensors as shown in figure
below.
Piezoelectric materials act as a transducers and pressure exerted by the moving people
transformed into electric current. This paper presents the design of power generation
using footstep based on piezoelectric sensors with detailed study of their merits,
demerits, the sub equipment and their requirements. Many Research groups are actively
working in the area of footstep power generation using piezoelectric methodology.
locomotion. Yaramasu et al., proposed high power wind energy conversation system as an

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Pramana Research Journal ISSN NO: 2249-2976

emerging technology using same technology [2]. Taghavi and Andrew Stinchchombe et
al., proposed a self-sufficient wireless transmitter powered by footpump urine operating
variable [3]. Ghosh et al., proposed electrical power generation using footstep for urban
area energy application [4]. Meirer et al., proposed a piezoelectric energy harvesting
shoe system for podiatric sensing [5]. Pedchenko and Alexander V. et al., proposed
analytical tools for investigating stability and power generation of electromagnetic
vibration energy of harvesters [8]. Others [6-7] proposed footstep generation through
walking and its mechanical impact during piezoelectric operations.

2. Experimental Setup and Working

Piezoelectric ceramics fit to the group of ferroelectric materials. The piezoelectric
effect is common in piezo ceramics like PbTiO3, PbZrO3, and PZT. Heart of the
present footstep power generator is the piezoelectric sensor which works as shown in
Figure 2.

Fig. 1. Piezo electric mechanism

In this present footstep power generator, the piezoelectric material plays a great role so
its choice is of great importance. PZT and PVDF are the two most commonly available
piezoelectric materials, so an analysis on these two materials was carried out, to chose
the most suitable material. The basis for selection was better output voltage for various
pressures applied.
As Shown in Figure 3. The physical foot interface is layed on chain sprocket
arrangement and spring which is connected to the piezoelectric sensors. The sensors
generate AC voltage which is converted to DC supply using DC generators; the DC
outputs will be stored in two (six volt each) batteries that are connected to an inverter
which will convert 12V to 220V AC. The AC output power will used in running of
load.

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Fig. 2. Piezo electric crystal sensor

Fig. 3. Block Diagram of foot step power generator.

Figure 4 depicts the experimental setup of the performed foot power generation
system which comprises of diodes, capacitors, astable vibrator, inverter and peizo
electric sensors. The number of piezo electric sensors that we will be using is 20.
Piezoelectric sensors are the sensors that will be producing AC voltage so in order to
convert the AC voltage into DC we will be using general purpose diode i.e.1N4001
series.
This is followed by a capacitor, and the capacitor charged by the rectifier. Charging
threshold voltage of this capacitor is pre- decided and at this voltage the switch closes
and discharging of capacitor takes place through the device.

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Pramana Research Journal ISSN NO: 2249-2976

Fig.4. Experimental setup of Foot step power generator system using piezo electric
sensors.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
V-I characteristics (as in Figure 5) of both the piezoelectric material under
consideration were studied to understand the output corresponds to the various pressure
and strain applied on them. Voltmeters and ammeter are used for measuring the
voltages developed across the piezoelectric materials and amount of current flowing
them respectively. As different observed pressure and strain are tested on the
piezoelectric material, different voltage readings were noted corresponding to the
different pressure and strain.

Fig.5. V-I Characteristics Graph

In this way, the energy can be stored in the capacitor by charging the capacitor, and
the capacitor may be discharged on the basis of requirement. However the energy
harvesting capacity of this circuit is not very much appreciable. To overcome this
problem, after bridge rectifier stage, one may use a DC to DC converter. An
improvement by a factor of seven in energy harvesting has been shown by the
addition of DC-DC converter. In parallel with the piezoelectric element, it contains a
switching device.
The DC voltage will be stored in 6V battery, the number of battery used is 2 in
number. The 6V each DC of the battery is converted into AC by power transistor T-1

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(NPN). The output of the transistor is fed to the inverter transformer which will
convert 12 V to 220Volt which will light up. The number of press or number of jumps
on a wooden plank is shown on the 0-99 counter.

CONCLUSION
In this paper we have calculated the various methodologies for foot step generation
using piezoelectric sensors. The Experimental setup is discussed with all sub
equipments. The results have been discussed in terms of output voltages. The plot
between current and voltage shows the extent of power generated. The various merits
are power generation is simply walking on the step and no need of fuel, power may also
be generated by running or exercising on the step and battery may be used to store the
conventional power. In future works one may attempt to overcome following limiting
factors as it is only applicable for the particular place and limited power is generated
using the conventional ICs present in market. In future we may implement the same
methodology in treadmills, staircases and places with frequent human moment with
their commercial usage model.

REFERENCES
[1] Arvind, Asha, Jilu Joy, S. Sreekalpa, S. Sujith, and Resmi Ramakrishnan “Power
Generation through Human Locomotion,” Journal of Electronics and Communication
Systems, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 1-9, 2016.
[2] Yaramasu, Venkata, Bin Wu, Paresh C. Sen, Samir Kouro, and Mehdi Narimani
“High-power wind energy conversion systems: State-of-the-art and emerging
technologies,” Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 103, no. 5, pp. 740-788, 2015.
[3] Taghavi, Majid, Andrew Stinchcombe, John Greenman, Virgilio Mattoli, Lucia
Beccai, Barbara Mazzolai, Chris Melhuish, and I.A. Ieropoulos “Self sufficient
wireless transmitter powered by foot-pumped urine operating wearable MFC,”
Bioinspiration & biomimetics 11, no. 1, pp. 016001, 2015.
[4] Ghosh, Joydev, Supratim Sen, Amit Saha, and Samir Basak. “Electrical power
generation using foot step for urban area energy applications,” Proceedings of IEEE
International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and
Informatics (ICACCI 2013), pp. 1367-1369, 2013.
[5] Meier, Rich, Nicholas Kelly, Omri Almog, and Patrick Chiang. “A piezoelectric
energy- harvesting shoe system for podiatric sensing,” Proceedings of IEEE 36th
Annual International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
(EMBC 2014), pp. 622-625., 2014.
[6] Pal, Prabir K., Vivek Mahadev, and K. Jayarajan. “Gait generation for a six-
legged walking machine through graph search,” Proceedings of IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 1332-1337, 1994.
[7] Basari, Amat A., Sosuke Awaji, Shintaro Sakamoto, Seiji Hashimoto, Bunji
Homma, Kenji Suto, Hiroaki Okada, Hideki Okuno, Kojiro Kobayashi, and Shunji
Kumagai “Evaluation on mechanical impact parameters in piezoelectric power

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generation,” Proceedings of IEEE 10th Asian Control Conference (ASCC), 2015, pp.
1-6, 2015.
[8] Pedchenko, Alexander V., E. Bryn Pitt, and Eric J. Barth. “Analytical Tools for
Investigating Stability and Power Generation of Electromagnetic Vibration Energy
Harvesters.” IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics 21, no. 2 (2016): 717-726.

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