Gogoi Niharika, Zhu Yuanjia, Kirchner Jens, Fischer Georg
Department of Computer Science, Durham University, Upper Mountjoy Campus, Stockton Road, Durham DH13LE, UK.
Institute of Technical Electronics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 Apr 16;24(8):2549. doi: 10.3390/s24082549.
Shoe-based wearable sensor systems are a growing research area in health monitoring, disease diagnosis, rehabilitation, and sports training. These systems-equipped with one or more sensors, either of the same or different types-capture information related to foot movement or pressure maps beneath the foot. This captured information offers an overview of the subject's overall movement, known as the human gait. Beyond sensing, these systems also provide a platform for hosting ambient energy harvesters. They hold the potential to harvest energy from foot movements and operate related low-power devices sustainably. This article proposes two types of strategies (Strategy 1 and Strategy 2) for an energy-autonomous shoe-based system. Strategy 1 uses an accelerometer as a sensor for gait acquisition, which reflects the classical choice. Strategy 2 uses a piezoelectric element for the same, which opens up a new perspective in its implementation. In both strategies, the piezoelectric elements are used to harvest energy from foot activities and operate the system. The article presents a fair comparison between both strategies in terms of power consumption, accuracy, and the extent to which piezoelectric energy harvesters can contribute to overall power management. Moreover, Strategy 2, which uses piezoelectric elements for simultaneous sensing and energy harvesting, is a power-optimized method for an energy-autonomous shoe system.
基于鞋子的可穿戴传感器系统是健康监测、疾病诊断、康复和运动训练领域中一个不断发展的研究方向。这些系统配备有一个或多个相同或不同类型的传感器，用于获取与脚部运动或脚底压力分布相关的信息。这些获取到的信息提供了对个体整体运动情况的概述，即人类步态。除了传感功能外，这些系统还为搭载环境能量采集器提供了一个平台。它们有潜力从脚部运动中采集能量，并可持续地运行相关的低功耗设备。本文针对能量自主的基于鞋子的系统提出了两种策略（策略1和策略2）。策略1使用加速度计作为步态采集传感器，这体现了传统的选择。策略2则使用压电元件来实现相同功能，这在其实现方式上开辟了一个新视角。在这两种策略中，压电元件都用于从脚部活动中采集能量并运行系统。本文从功耗、准确性以及压电能量采集器对整体功率管理的贡献程度等方面对两种策略进行了公正的比较。此外，策略2利用压电元件同时进行传感和能量采集，是一种针对能量自主鞋子系统的功率优化方法。
