Energy Harvesting from Rose of Jericho Movements

In this paper an energy harvesting based on motions imposed through spontaneous Rose of Jericho movements is presented. The plant curls its branches and seedpods inward in the dry condition, forming a ball that opens only when moistened. Its movements correlated with the environmental conditions are used to scavenge energy through flexible piezoelectric foils located around the plant. The architecture is composed of 8 piezoelectric transducers where each one, when mechanically stimulated through the plant, is able to generate a voltage of about 100 mVpp across a resistive load of 1MΩ. The proof of concept of the system together with preliminary mechanical and electrical considerations will be presented in the paper showing the suitability of the proposed solution as energy harvester from mechanical motions imposed through natural movements coming from a vegetal organism.