Project Overview

Walking Powered Mobile Phone Charger

Background Information:

At the turn of the 21st century, human consumption of fossil fuels has risen to disastrous levels. Carbon emissions in the atmosphere are on the rise and is the major cause of global climate change. As we look ahead long term, it will not be feasible to rely on fossil fuels to meet our energy needs; a switch to sustainable and renewable energy has to be implemented globally.

While renewable energy may ultimately may be the answer, there are daily activities that everyone performs that also generate power. One of these activities is walking, the idea behind this project was to try and recover a little of the energy that is exerted when walking and use it for some other purpose as well. While it may not be possible to generate a massive amount of energy by walking, every little bit counts and the goal is to collect enough to charge a mobile phone.

Deliverable:

The final product is going to be an enclosure box with gears, generator and an electronic circuitry that can potentially be pre-installed during the manufacturing process of a shoe. For the case of this project, this compact box will be attached in place of the back sole. As a user steps their foot down, a vertically movable wedge jutting outside the sole would turn a vertical gear within the box. The motion of this gear would drive the rest of the gear train. Using a 1:27 gear ratio to cause a mechanical advantage, a generator at the end of the gear train would turn with sufficient energy to charge the battery in a cell phone. Therefore, it is evident that the product aims towards providing a seamless, non-conventional way of charging small electronic devices. Along side the physical prototype, a presentation and technical report will be created to explain the process of developing the final product. Lastly, the theoretical energy output will be compared with experimental results and the deviation will be analyzed within the final report.