Measurements and analysis of body induced movements for kinetic energy harvesters

Vibration based energy harvesting is one of the most intriguing technology for the future of autonomous measurement systems and self-sustained nodes. Literature presents several devices able to recovery energy from external vibrations but very often the signals to characterize the specific transducer are simulated, emulated or approximated to a specific noise (i.e. Gaussian), periodic signals or multi-resonant signals. It should be noted that these approximations do not always reflect the real scenario. In this context, we present here measurements campaigns to study the real kinetic sources coming from body induced movements. The analyses here conducted (in the time and frequency domain) arouse interest in order to design, simulate and to calculate the performance of vibration energy harvesters. In the present study, several types of body movements will be accounted through 3D measurements and considerations in terms of acceleration, useful energy to be harvested, spectral content will be accomplished. This represents an interesting analysis in the perspective to design macro-scale and also MEMS architectures. The results are also suitable to estimate the amount of power which can be scavenged or used to recharge a specific battery (sustainer) for autonomous or quasi-autonomous wearable devices.