Biomechanical mechanism for energy harvesting from gait for rehabilitation purposes

Abstract

In this paper, a new method for biomedical energy harvesting system equipped in footwear has been proposed, which scavenges power from human gait motion, especially from the hell strike, by means of a power transmission system and a special generator. Once the electricity is generated, the equipped shoe can use the electrical power for rehabilitation purpose such as thermal and cold therapy. Two effective, automatically controlled heating and cooling instruments embedded in the shoe's sole maintain proper temperature and humidity within the normal or user selected range. In addition an alternative cooling system which is less expensive but effective has been proposed. Another useful system is obstacle detecting system for helping people with low-level vision. Few useful accessories including alarm system, distance estimation system have been discussed. Finally the experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of our proposed method.