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Abundant human energy powers electrical sensors

08 January 2018

Thor Balkhed

Mechanical energy, which is possessed by everything that moves, is an abundant source of energy. Eiman Satti’s doctoral project has developed a footstep sensor that converts the mechanical energy of a footstep to electricity.

Video
Converting mechanical energy to other useful forms of energy, and developing new devices that use mechanical energy to perform a task, can contribute to the energy supply.

The piezoelectric effect is one way of converting mechanical energy to useful electrical energy.
The video (link below) shows that many of the mechanical motions around us, such as handwriting and foot pressure, can be used to obtain useful electrical energy and signals.

The Physical Electronics and Nanotechnology research group is based at Campus Norrköping and led by senior lecturer Omer Nour.

Eiman Satti’s thesis: Low-Frequency Self-Powered Footstep Sensor Based on ZnO Nanowires on Paper Substrate

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Photo of Omer Nour

Omer Nour

Senior Associate Professor

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Footstep sensor based on piezoelectric nanogenerator transferring mechanical energy into electrical energy

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ZnO with its excellent electro-mechanical coupling properties is being realized in our research on nanomechanics. Namely piezoelectricity based on ZnO nano-wires grown on different substrates is an active research area.
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Physical Electronics and Nanotechnology

Our research covers a broad range of topics in materials and devices. At present, the main topics are on the growth, characterization, modeling and device realization of configurations based on nano-structures on different substrates.

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