An exploratory study on the feasibility of a foot gear type energy harvester using a textile coil inductor

This research developed a textile coil inductor, in which conductive yarn was wound spirally onto textile, and produced an energy harvesting module utilizing a cylindrical compression coil spring structure to allow a permanent magnet to spin in the center hole of the coil inductor. The study confirmed through a pilot test that the voltage increased as the number of laminated layers of the coil inductor increased. Five subjects were tested in the energy harvesting measuring experiment after producing a sports shoe insole-mounted energy harvesting module. While the subjects executed sports motions such as walking and running at five given frequencies, the peak-to-peak voltage was measured by an oscilloscope and the accumulated energy voltage of the calculated rms voltage (Vrms) and the peak power (㎼) were derived. The output voltage increased as the frequency increased and the average Vp-p (V) of the five subjects was 0.53 V, the average peak power (㎼) was 0.289 ㎼, and the Vrms (V) was 0.065 V. This research is significant in that it suggests the possibility of an energy harvesting module based upon the textile coil inductor emerging from the former shoes’ energy generator packaging method for heavy shoe types by developing a lightweight, flexible, and human-friendly footgear module structure.