International Journal of Recent Innovation in Engineering and Research

Scientific Journal Impact Factor - 3.605 by SJIF

e- ISSN: 2456 – 2084

FOOTSTEP POWER GENERATION USING PIEZOELECTRIC SENSORS

Jitha Varghese1 and Paul Karikottil2
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, KCG College of Technology, Chennai
2
Technical Manager, HCL Technologies, Chennai
Abstract- Man has needed and used energy at an increasing rate for the sustenance and well-being
since time immemorial. Due to this a lot of energy resources have been exhausted and wasted.
Proposal for the utilization of waste energy of foot power with human locomotion is very much
relevant and important for highly populated countries like India where the railway station, temples
etc., are overcrowded all round the clock .When the flooring is engineered with piezoelectric
technology, the electrical energy produced by the pressure is captured by floor sensors and converted
to an electrical charge by piezo transducers, then stored and used as a power source. And this power
source has many applications as in agriculture, home application and street lighting and as energy
source for sensors in remote locations. The proposed system is simulated using MATLAB software.
Keywords- Piezoelectric, PIC, Foot Step Power Generation, Inverter, Boost Converter
I. INTRODUCTION
Non-conventional energy system is very essential at this time to our nation. A transducer can
be anything which converts one form of energy to another. Piezoelectric material is one kind of
transducers. We squeeze this material or we apply force or pressure on this material to converts it
into electric voltage and this voltage is function of the force or pressure applied to it. The material
which behaves in such a way is also known as piezoelectric sensor. The electric voltage produced by
piezoelectric transducer can be easily measured by voltage measuring instruments, which can be
used to measure stresses or forces. The physical quantity like mechanical stress or force cannot be
measured directly. Therefore, piezoelectric transducer can be used.
Man has needed energy at an increasing rate for his sustenance and well being ever since he
came on the earth. Due to this lot of energy resource have been exhausted and wasted. Proposal for
the utilization of waste energy with foot power human locomotion is very much relevant and is very
important for highly populated countries in INDIA and CHINA, where the roads, railway stations,
bus stands and temples are overcrowded and millions of people moving around the clock. By using
such principle the energy can be utilized in the whole area where the mechanical energy is being
converted to electrical energy[1].
In the world of modern technology, newer sources of energy and new methods of power
generation are two important area of interest for researchers and engineers. Recently a new method is
established to generate power from the lost energy of a human during his/her locomotive period. A
piezoelectric sensor based costly product is available in some developed countries which can
generate power from human locomotive force, but it is not suitable for countries like Bangladesh
where power demand is very high but economy is not highly developed. A Power Generating Slab
can be designed and constructed which can be used to generate power by establishing anywhere of
the walking zone of human (roads, stairs, pavements, dais etc). This is done in a low cost process
with locally available equipments (micro-generator, iron plate, rack pinion gear, free-wheeling
system, spring etc). These slabs can easily sustain human weight when people walk along them. With
a small deformation of spring, the weight (mechanical energy) of a human body is converted into
electrical energy by rotating a micro-generator with the help of a `rotating shaft' coupled with it.
From each foot step almost 10V-12V is generated. This energy is stored in a rechargeable battery
which can be used as a power source to drive loads. Assembly of some power generating slabs can
give better result. This is a method which is reusable and it will run for a longer period[2].

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In recent times, vibration based energy harvesting has drawn attention of many researchers
worldwide. This is due to advancement in Micro electromechanical (MEM) devices and wireless
sensors with power requirements in range of microwatts-mill watts; hence vibration energy sources
have promising potentials for such demands[3]. With the increase in energy consumption due to ever
growing number of electronic devices, the concept of harvesting renewable energy in human
surrounding arouses a renewed interest. In the last decade, beam with piezo ceramic patches have
been used as a method to harvest energy. The energy harvester system consist of unimorph
piezoelectric cantilever beam with a tip mass. It generates electric current or voltage from the
piezoelectric strain effect due to base excitation[4]. Piezoelectric materials can be used as
mechanisms to transfer mechanical energy, usually ambient vibration, into electrical energy that can
be stored and used to power other devices. With the recent advances in wireless and MEMS
technology, sensors can be placed in exotic and remote locations. Since these devices are wireless it
becomes necessary that they have their own power supply[5]. We are generating electrical power as
non-conventional method by simply walking or running on the footstep. Non-conventional energy
system is very essential at this time to our nation. Non-conventional energy using foot step is
converting mechanical energy into the electrical energy. This project uses piezoelectric sensorr[6].
A design study on the geometric parameters of a cantilever-based piezoelectric energy-
harvesting devices (EHD), which harvest energy from motion (vibration), for the purpose of
scavenging more energy from ambient vibration energy sources[7].
II. PROPOSED SYSTEM
In the proposed system, the piezoelectric material converts the pressure applied to it into
electrical energy. The source of pressure can be either from the weight of the moving vehicles or
from the weight of the people walking over it. The output of the piezoelectric material is not a steady
one. So a bridge circuit is used to convert this variable voltage into a linear one. Again an AC ripple
filter is used to filter out any further fluctuations in the output. The output dc voltage is then stored in
a rechargeable battery. As the power output from a single piezo-film was extremely low,
combination of few Piezo films was investigated. Two possible connections were tested - parallel
and series connections. The parallel connection did not show significant increase in the voltage
output. With series connection, additional piezo-film results in increased of voltage output but not in
linear proportion. The block diagram for the proposed system is shown in fig 1.

Figure 1. Block Diagram of proposed system

III. DESCRIPTION OF BLOCK DIAGRAM
3.1 Piezoelectric Sensors
The piezoelectric transducers work on the principle of piezoelectric effect to measure changes
in displacement, force, pressure, strain and acceleration converting them to electric charge. The
effect is reversible when the voltage is applied to them, they tend to change the dimensions of the
piezoelectric material.
It has been successfully used in various applications, such as in medical, aerospace, nuclear
instrumentation, and as a pressure sensor in the touch pads of mobile phones. In the automotive

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industry, piezoelectric elements are used to monitor combustion when developing internal
combustion engines.
3.2 Boost Converter
DC-DC Boost Converter is used to convert the DC voltage from low level voltage to high
level voltage. This works like a step up transformer to improve the DC voltage level. The Boost
converter consist of inductance and capacitance to step up the voltage level in the circuit. The
MOSFET switch is used in this converter.
3.3 Inverter
An inverter is a device that change or convert direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC)
output. The output is usually 230v at 50 cycle alternating current to match line power. Inverter
converts the DC to AC for the load.
3.4 Voltage Regulator
A regulator power supply is very much essential for several electronic devices due to
semiconductor material employed in them. They have a fixed rate of current as well as voltage. ICs
regulator is mainly used in circuit to maintain the exact voltage which is followed by power supply.
3.5 Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC)
The Peripheral Interface Controller or Programmable Intelligent Controller microcontroller
that is used in the proposed work is PIC16F877A. The PIC microcontroller’s instruction set
architecture is 16 bit Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC).It consists of an inbuilt ADC,
USART which are mainly used in this project. ADC is used for the conversion of analog output of
sensors to digital and USART for serial asynchronous communication.
3.6 Rectifier
The Rectifier is a device used to change or convert the Alternating current (AC) to Direct
current (DC) output. The rectifier circuit consist of diodes for rectification, it is classified as two
types namely
 Full wave rectification
 Half wave rectification.
The piezoelectric sensor produces variable DC output while applying pressure on it, the
variable DC output is converted as pure DC by using rectifier to store the energy in battery.
3.7 Step Down Transformer
The step down transformer is used to convert the high level voltage into low level voltage. In
this circuit it is used to convert the high level voltage into low level voltage. In this circuit it is used
to give the power supply for the microcontroller and the Driver circuits.
IV. METHODOLOGY
When the piezoelectric sensor is stressed it produces the variable DC voltage it is converted
into pure DC voltage by using rectifier. The pure DC voltage is stored in battery with the
unidirectional current controller to prevent back flow of current to sensors. The DC-DC boost
converter is used to improve the voltage it step up the voltage and it is connected to inverter. The
inverter is used to change or convert the Direct current (DC) to Alternating Current (AC) output with
the load connected to it. The Driver circuit is used to turn on MOSFET by giving the gate pulse. The
PIC is used to control the voltage and to give digital signal for LCD display which is connected to
the PIC for displaying the output voltage. The pulses are programmed in the PIC controller.
The piezoelectric material using is PZT (Lead Zirconate titanate), it produces 1.5V and 5mA in
each single sensor. In this prototype we are using about 3-4 sensors which produces minimum
amount of energy (92.5 micro Joules) in single step of average weighted person approximately 60kg.
The piezoelectric sensor produces variable dc voltage which is converted into pure dc by using
rectifier. The battery capacity is 12V and 1.5Amp. The piezoelectric sensor produces maximum

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energy for future power generation by using an array arrangement. The unidirectional current
controller diode (1N4007) which prevents the back flow of current to the sensors from battery. Fig.
2 shows the DC-DC Boost converter circuit.

Figure 2. DC-DC Boost circuit

The 12v dc supply is passed to the dc-dc boost converter which contains inductance and
capacitance it improve the voltage by charge storing on the inductor and capacitor. The voltage
stepped up and it passed to the inverter, the boost converter consist of two MOSFET switch. The
switch T1 turns on and it stores the energy in the inductance, further the other MOSFET switch is
turned on and stores the energy in capacitance. The total stepped up voltage is occurred on the boost
converter for this prototype it produces about 24V dc supply output in converter. The inverter used to
convert dc directing current to ac in the prototype the 24V dc is converted into the 12V ac. The load
is connected to the inverter, in this prototype H-bridge inverter is used. The inverter consist of four
MOSFETS , turned on by using driver circuit and has power supply from the voltage regulator.
The microcontroller PIC16F877A with interfacing of the LCD display 16x2, the driver circuit
is used since the PIC has minimum voltage to give the gate pulse for MOSFETS in H-bridge
inverter. The fig. 3 shows the LCD interface with the PIC16F877A.

Figure 3. LCD interface with the PIC16F877A

The load used in this prototype is 6watt bulb, the power supply for PIC controller and the
driver circuit is externally applied. So it is not so efficient power generation, but the high amount of
piezoelectric sensors with array arrangement in Railway platform, street, temple etc. it produces
maximum power generation per day.
Piezoelectric flooring is a technology with a wide range of applications that is slowly being
adopted in the race to develop alternative energy sources. After all, human power is readily available
in pretty much any area with heavy foot traffic, such as a dance floor, or a tourist attractions.
V. SIMULATION CIRCUIT
The simulation circuit for Footstep power generation is shown in fig. 4.

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Figure 4. Simulation circuit for footstep power generation

VI. SIMULATION RESULTS
The circuit with controller and boost converter was simulated in MATLAB software and the
outputs are viewed .
Fig. 5 shows the output of the rectifier and Fig. 6 shows the driver circuit output
voltage(v)

voltage(v)

Figure 5. Waveform of voltage and time for Figure 6. Output of driver circuit for converter
rectifier circuit

The output of Controller is shown in Fig. 7 and converter voltage output is shown in Fig.8

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 Volume: 02 Issue: 08 August – 2017 (IJRIER)

voltage(v)
voltage(v)

Time(sec) Time(sec)
Figure 7. Waveform of current and time from Figure 8. Waveform of voltage and time for
PIC converter output
The waveform for inverter final output is shown in Fig. 9
voltage(v)

Time(sec)
Figure 9. Waveform for inverter final output
VII. CONCLUSION
The “Power Generation Using Foot Step” can be implemented for many applications in rural
areas where power availability is less or totally absence. As India is a developing country where
energy management is a big challenge for huge population. We can drive both A.C. as well as D.C
loads according to the force we applied on the piezoelectric sensor. This method gives a efficient
power generation in highly populated countries as it reduces power demand without pollution.
VIII. FUTURE SCOPE
Utilization of wasted energy is very much relevant and important for highly populated
countries in future. Japan has already started experimenting the use of piezoelectric effect for energy
generation. They implement piezoelectric effect on the stairs of the bus. Thus every time passenger
steps on the tiles; they trigger a small vibration that can be stored as energy. Piezoelectric flooring is
a technology with a wide range of applications that is slowly being adopted in the race to develop
alternative energy sources. After all, human power is readily available in pretty much any area with
heavy foot traffic, such as a dance floor, or a tourist attractions. The flooring tiles are made up of
rubber which can absorb the vibration. This vibration generates when running or walking on it.
Under these tiles piezoelectric material are placed. When the movement is felt by the material they
can generate the electricity. This generated energy is simultaneously stored into the battery.
Generated electricity we can use the lightning of lamp or street light. Energy is generated by step of
one human being is too less but if number of steps increases ultimately energy production also
increases.
REFERENCES
[1] Joydev Ghosh,Supratim Sen,Amit Saha Samir Basak.(2013)" Electrical power generation using foot step for urban
area energy applications" IEEE International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and
Informatics (ICACCI), Aug. 2013

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[2] Rajesh Kumar Datta,Sazid Rahman,(2014). "Power Generating Slabs: Lost energy conversion of human locomotive
force into electrical energy" IEEE 8th International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering , Dec. 2014.
[3] M. N Fakhzan,Asan G. A,Muthalif(2013)."Vibration based energy harvesting using piezoelectric material"4th
International Conference on Mechatronics (ICOM), May 2011.
[4] [4] Atharva College of Engineering, Mumbai, India,(2013).”Piezoelectric crystals: future source of electricity”
International Journal of Scientific Engineering and Technology, Volume 2 Issue 4, April 2013.
[5] [5]Henry A. Sodano, Daniel J. Inman, Gyuhae Park(2004). ”Estimation of Electric Charge Output for Piezoelectric
Energy Harvesting” Strain Journal, 40(2), 49-58, 2004.
[6] [6] A.R.Sri Harsha,A. Srija Reddy(2014)."Foot step power generation system for rural energy application to run ac
and dc loads with GSM based battery voltage monitoring ;" International Journal of Engineering & Science
Research, Jan 2014.
[7] [7] Meiling Zhu, Emma Worthingto,Ashutosh Tiwari (2010)." Design Study of Piezoelectric Energy- Harvesting
Devices for Generation of Higher Electrical Power Using a Coupled Piezoelectric-Circuit Finite Element Method"
IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonic’s, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol. 57, no. 2, February 2010.

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