Wearable Pendulum-Rotor-Separated Hybrid Generator for Smart Healthcare Monitoring

Human biomechanical energy, with features of fluctuating amplitudes and low frequency, has been considered as a potential sustainable power source for wearable healthcare monitoring devices. Developing an effective energy harvester to ensure robust energy harvesting efficiency remains highly desired. Herein, we propose a wearable pendulum-rotor-separated triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid generator (PTEHG). The novel pendulum-rotor separation design can make the rotor propelled in one direction by the swinging pendulum, which can further facilitate a wearable hybrid energy harvester with stable energy harvesting, a broad operating bandwidth, and system reliability. By converting the biomechanical energy into electric power, the peak power density of 83.12 W/m³ is delivered by the PTEHG at a frequency of 1.6 Hz. A PTEHG-based healthcare monitoring system was also demonstrated for real-time motion tracking and fall detection. This work paves a new way for enhancing the efficiency of human biomechanical energy harvesting and presents a practical pathway for continuous healthcare monitoring.