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Self-Powered All-in-One Wearable Bioelectronics Driven by Pneumatic Energy Buffering of Daily Footsteps
Ji-Seok Kim1,2, Tae Woog Kang3,4, Hyunjoon Yoo1
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Abstract:
Recent advances in wearable biosensing technologies have underscored the importance of continuous and reliable personal health monitoring. However, the limited size and capacity of conventional batteries remain a critical bottleneck for long-term operation. Here, we present integrated self-powered wearable bioelectronics driven by an air-pumping pneumatic energy buffering mechanism, which converts intermittent human motion into sustained mechanical rotation during walking and efficiently generates electrical energy. The air-driven rotation persists for 1.5 s per step, enabling continuous power generation from inherently low-frequency biomechanical inputs and serving as a lightweight frequency-regulating mechanism for wearable energy harvesters. To facilitate efficient integration with energy storage systems, a power management system is developed to directly charge a compact battery. In addition, a wearable photoplethysmography (PPG) device is designed to mitigate motion-induced artifacts, enabling robust physiological signal acquisition during dynamic conditions. Owing to its Velcro-type design, the PPG system demonstrates improved signal reliability compared to conventional devices. By integrating the energy harvester with the PPG, a self-powered wearable biosensing platform has been successfully demonstrated. Unlike conventional wearable energy harvesters that directly convert transient biomechanical inputs into short-duration electrical outputs, the proposed system introduces a pneumatic energy buffering mechanism that enables quasi-continuous power generation from inherently intermittent human motion.

