Sole-tage

Project Abstract / Summary : The next generation of wearables could be powered by an unlikely energy source: you. As energy demand is rising rapidly the need to find alternative sources of harvesting energy becomes very necessary. Our idea is a device that acts as the sole of your shoe and can harvest energy from your movements as you walk or run. The energy is derived from a polymer transducer that works on the principle of piezoelectric effect. In capturing the kinetic energy of footsteps, the Smart Sole converts energy into electrical power that is stored in a battery for later use. The battery is then used to charge simple electronic devices.

It is found that the heel strike during walking is the most plentiful and readily tapped source of waste energy. The aim is to create a piezoelectric chip small enough to be embedded in the sole of a shoe that's designed to produce electric charge to power a battery which can later be used to charge portable devices. Harnessing kinetic energy from walking or running alone is not sufficient because it’s difficult to generate energy to power today’s applications.

What is Piezoelectricity?

Piezoelectricity (also called the piezoelectric effect) is the appearance of an electrical potential (a voltage, in other words) across the sides of a crystal when you subject it to mechanical stress (by squeezing it). In practice, the crystal becomes a kind of tiny How do batteries work? A simple introduction - Explain that Stuff with a positive charge on one face and a negative charge on the opposite face; current flows if we connect the two faces together to make a circuit. In the reverse piezoelectric effect, a crystal becomes mechanically stressed (deformed in shape) when a voltage is applied across its opposite faces.

How we plan to implement this phenomenon in our project is by attaching piezoelectric discs or chips across the sole of the shoe. We plan to place the piezoelectric material on both sides of the sole because this will double the energy produced. This is due to Newton’s third law of motion which states that “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. Hence the ground exerts an equal amount of force which is equal to the force exerted by the person’s feet on the ground. The sole receives voltage from all these discs/chips and through a cable, this resultant voltage is fed to a power bank such as a battery. When the battery is powered up, it can be connected to supply to other devices through USB cable. The power bank can be any rechargeable battery which can be connected through USB port. The voltage produced by the sole of the shoe is capable of charging a 500mAh battery in 8 hours of continuous walking/jogging. When the shoe is worn during more aggressive activities like running or playing sports such as basketball, it only takes a maximum of 3 hours to charge the same battery. The voltage produced can also be used to power devices such as GPS receivers, transponders or other sensors.

Why did you choose to work on this project topic : Dealing with energy crisis is the need of the hour. This can be done by harvesting renewable sources of energy that can be tapped from things we see in our daily life. Energy harvesting is a process that captures small amounts of energy that would otherwise be lost as heat, light, sound, vibration or movement. Energy harvesting also has the potential to replace batteries for small, low power electronic devices. As Electronics is the base of our course of engineering, we figured that pairing energy harvesting along with electronics is a match made in heaven. The principle behind our project is Piezoelectric effect, which we have studied in detail about. Putting our theoretical knowledge on piezoelectric sensors and transducers, to harvest electrical energy is something that would help us immensely.
There are already a few prototypes of our project available in the market but none in India. We intend on bringing about a home grown 'Made in India' product to help tackle the problems we face due to insufficient energy. This can be particularly helpful in rural areas and agricultural regions, factories etc where a lot of manual labour and movement of people from one place to another by foot is present. As a vast chunk of the population is into such activities, the scope of such projects seems very fruitful.
With the successful implementation of this project, not only would we be generating electricity with each step, but this also gives hope for a better tomorrow where each and every one in the country can produce their own power free of cost and everyone has access to electricity.

Project Category : Electrical / Electronics / Communication
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Institute/College Name: SRM University
City: Chennai
State: Tamil Nadu
Participating Team From: Third Year